


RWBY Dimensional Cinema

by SirAttlich



Category: RWBY
Genre: Action Comedy Drama, Actually developed character relationships, And actually learn something from them, Character Study, Extensive RWBY Worldbuilding, In-depth character backgrounds, Minor Rooster Teeth bashing, Multi, RWBY watches Alternate Universes, but with STORY & PLOT!, reaction fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:20:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 34,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29435955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirAttlich/pseuds/SirAttlich
Summary: By the hand of an unknown force, the world of Remnant got completely and utterly annihilated. Luckily for the cast, they got rescued by a suspiciously kind soul who settled them in an auditorium as they wait for their home to be restored. In the meantime...well, there is a giant theater screen in front of them, so they might as well watch something, right?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	1. Prologue

" **Tell me brother…tell me why you do what you do."**

A clang of steel on bone followed the question. An overly long, straight great sword whose blade had flames dancing around it against a poisonous, curved bone sword clashed together, as their respective wielders tried to push each other for an opening for a clean strike.

" **Is it curiosity? A twisted need to meddle into everything? Or perhaps you are bored? Which one is it?"**

The clash was followed with a powerful kick from the wielder of the steel sword that sent the opposition sliding back. However, he remained standing as he perfectly blocked the kick with his own sword.

"I dunno, you tell me – aren'cha supposed to be like ma inner demon or an evil doppelganger or some overused trope? The _'I-know-your-deepest-darkest-secrets-an'-desires'_ kind'a thing?"

The cocky voice that responded belonged to a man in a heavy set of golden armor decorated with a ragged blue cloth insignia on his chest. The Zweihander in his hands was a massive blade that was even taller than him, and yet he didn't look like he was putting any physical effort into wielding it.

However, the most prominent feature of the man was his mask that covered his entire face. The mask itself was bronze in color and it was shaped into a contorted, screaming face of a bearded man, effectively concealing the identity of its wearer.

" **Hah! You use quips and sarcastic jokes to conceal the fact that you don't know the answer yourself. Is it because you don't want to know, do you?"**

On the other side of the armored, masked man was a person who, despite being shrouded in shadows and dark energies as if he was the abyss personified, managed to look even more bizarre. While the leather footwear and arm wear were quite unimpressive, the bulky chest armor looked like it was made of black, hardened vines.

The stomach cavity was so unnaturally bloated that it would leave a normal viewer perplexed to how something like that could even fit an average human body. It made the skull mask with rare strands of hair on his head look quite tame.

"Nah, I just don't care. Serious talk now Edgy McEdgelord, how many times have we done this same song and dance routine? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the sparring but are you SERIOUSLY going to bug me with the same questions over and over like a broken record?"

The arena they are fighting in isn't much of an arena as it's a simple, wide marble platform that seemed to stretch out infinitely. What was interesting about the location were the many border-less mirrors in the black sky, each an every one of them showing a different picture.

"It gets old real fast, lemme tell ya."

And there were a lot of mirrors showing various pictures – one showed a swordsman with a peculiar scar on his cheek and even more peculiar dull blade; the other depicted a road warrior driving through the wasteland, trying to find inner peace; a second mirror presented four strangely masked men fighting the law for to keep their ill-gotten gains.

" **Because you know what will happen in the end, right? You know that the sign on your neck spells certain doom for you…and yet, instead of seeking a cure so you can fulfill your destiny and conquer everything, you waste what is left of your time by indulging in hedonism and pointless frivolities!"**

The shadowy figure conjured up a wooden staff and shot out several beads of raw dark energy from it and towards the masked man. The attack was repelled by a sudden burst of light, with the source of said light being a necklace that dangled from the man's shoulders.

"Destiny can suck it for all I care. Why? Because I like being my own boss. And if ya got a problem with that…", The man went into an offensive stance with the Zweihander, pointing at his opponent:

"Then yer welcome to talk to this!"

Both men charged at each other and the heavy blades clashed, their sounds echoing throughout the blackened void filled with mirrors.

After three strikes, the masked man managed to stumble the shadow by delivering a strong headbutt which was followed by a spinning horizontal slice that launched him backwards.

The shadow grunted in pain as he stumbled on the ground, barely managing to stop the momentum with his own blade. He used it as a crutch to try to get up and was doing his best to ignore the flaming wound on his stomach that his shadow energy was trying to extinguish.

He cursed the whole situation - his brother, himself, the prophecy of the Conqueror that he could only fulfill with the help of his brother. Unfortunately, he made it very clear the first time they met that he will never help him on making the prophecy come true.

 _ **'Coward.'**_ Shadow thought as he shot a hateful look towards his brother.

If nothing else, the brother is at least right about one thing – this became a routine: whenever he tries to beat some sense into him, his brother overpowers him and defeats him. His shadow form shatters and then it needs to reform before going after him again.

"What's the matter _'brotha'_? Tired already? I can do this all day, ya know." The masked man mocked as he was reflexively tapping the blade of the Zweihander on his steel shoulder pad.

The shadow was tired – physically he was capable of doing fighting him all eternity if need be, but the toll on his mind that ultimately, he isn't going anywhere is starting to drain him. So far, he could not find a single weakness in his brother's combat ability nor his willpower.

A mirror floated by him, showing a red-hooded girl fighting creatures of darkness that weren't unlike him.

Weakness…

" **Heh…the solution…was right in front of me all this time…"**

Weakness.

" **Brother…your mind is like an open book to me."**

"Prob'ly filled with useless info to the brim – but go ahead, what're ye getting at?" The confidence of his brother was about to be completely shattered; of that he was sure.

The shadow got up and pointed the tip of the dark curved sword at the mirror.

" **They are your favorite, are they not? Even though you resent their makers for what they've done to them, you still hold their creation dear in your heart, don't you?"**

The shadow noticed that the tapping has stopped and that his grip on the Zweihander tightened considerably.

" **Tell me, dear brother…what would happen if someone like me decided to go and…how would you phrase it? Ah yes – _blow off some steam_?"**

"Do that, and I'll take ma time dismantling you piece. By. Piece." The cocky, playful voice was replaced with a more serious and menacing tone, indicating that he meant every single word. But the shadow didn't flinch to the threat, and continued:

" **But when you do a similar thing yourself, it's perfectly fine? But now that it happens to something it concerns you personally, you're taking offense? What a twisted double standard that is, isn't it, brother?"**

"Fuck you."

The shadow chuckled at the insult and started caressing the edge of his blade, adding:

" **Besides, the pain you'll cause me won't compare to the agony I'll inflict to them!"**

The shadow jumped into the mirror, the surface which rippled like water when he passed through.

"NO!" The masked man screamed as he sprinted towards the mirror, hoping he won't be too late.

* * *

Ruby had absolutely no idea what was happening now.

One moment she was taking a well deserved nap (a very deserved nap considering she was completely exhausted from the battle of Haven) and in the next one, she finds herself in a big, black room that looked like a...movie theater?

' _Am...am I kidnapped?'_

The case against that claim was that no one of sound mind would imprison someone inside a movie theater. Second, she was neither restrained or cuffed - a stupid thing to do if you're kidnapping a kid with literal superpowers.

What did she notice, however, was the lack of the familiar weight on her that was Crescent Rose, which concerned her a bit. But she wasn't worried too much - she now knew hand-to-hand combat, courtesy of Ozpin and , later on, Yang. True, she was a far cry from being a proficient fist fighter but she could proudly say that she wasn't as useless as back at Beacon without her beloved weapon.

After a quick examination of the walls, she didn't see any kind of exit. Since she watched a lot of cheesy spy movies with Yang, Ruby took an effort to touch every side of the wall as much as possible. Alas, there were no hidden plates to push that would open a door that was hidden as just another brick wall.

Speaking of bricks, Ruby felt the walls, while black in color, were unnaturally smooth and cold to touch.

_'Huh, it's almost like marble.'_

She also thoroughly searched the seats - all 34 of them. And while they didn't hold any secret buttons either, the seats themselves were color coded and unevenly split into three groups - white, grey and black, with white having the most seats while the grey having the least. Specifically, there were 22 white seats...

_'Waitaminute, that one seat is too wide to count as one! It's probably one of those couples-only seats. I think...maybe.'_

She counted 23 white seats, four grey and seven black, amounting to the previously mentioned number. The uneven split between the chairs looked a bit out of the ordinary for Ruby, which only mounted questions upon existing questions.

What really caught her eye was the massive theater screen and the space between it and the chairs, a good 50 feet if she correctly estimated. Ruby cautiously sat on a a front white chair and noticed that, despite the size of the screen (which she guessed was around 60 feet), the whole screen was visible within her cone of vision. There was also a very wide stage that wasn't elevated too high from the floor - she'd guess it took a bit more than half of the space as all the chairs did.

The chairs were also pretty nice - comfy and smooth leather, each seat had their own armrests - at least she didn't have to push other people to adjust her arms. If there were other people coming in the first place.

Ruby decided enough was enough, got up from her seat and yelled out:

"Yang!? Weiss!? Uncle Qrow?! Headmaster Ozpin?! Is anyone there?!"

The hooded Huntress-in-training became increasingly worried since there wasn't any kind of response whatsoever. So she put herself in a fighting stance, now aware and ready to take on anyone who has beef with her.

 _'Speaking of which, I could go for a beef sandwich right about now...even though I'm not really hungry...ugh, focus Ruby!'_ She scolded herself as her eyes wandered around the theater room. The general silence didn't help ease her mind.

Suddenly a whooshing sound permeated through the room as Ruby now focused on the white seats. Particles of light started to gather above the first three seats on the left in the middle row and started to form familiar silhouettes. A second later, the silhouettes were complete and from the light came her sister, Blake and Weiss.

"Guys!"

Both Weiss and Blake looked like they were just waking up from a deep sleep while Yang groaned as she had her hand on her forehead.

"...Ruby?" Weiss groggily asked.

"C'mon, wake up! I need your help!" Ruby yelped as she started shaking all three of her teammates simultaneously in rapid succession, quickly switching between each girl.

"Headache's...killing me." Yang muttered a complaint while she was being shaken awake by her sister.

The first one to come to was Blake who jumped from her seat and observed her current surroundings.

"A theater? Where...where are we?" she asked outloud, to which Ruby responded:

"I have no idea. The whole room is closed off and I couldn't find any secret exits or hidden switches. I checked everything!"

By that moment all the girls woke up and stood up from their respective seats and carefully looked around them, noticing everything Ruby had before they got there. Before they could do anything, Yang cleared her throat and said:

"So, is this supposed to be a joke or what? Because I don't _see-nema_ the point."

Yang grinned, expecting the following reactions: Ruby groaned, Blake rolled her eyes and Weiss grabbed the bridge of her nose and looked very upset for some reason.

"Is this seriously the time, Yang? We're trapped in Gods-knows where and there are no exits in this room at all! I can't believe- Oh my God...Yang, your arm!"

The rest of RWBY, completely shocked by what they're seeing, stared at Yang as she raised her right arm.

That was made out of blood, flesh and skin. Her own arm.

Yang shrieked and recoiled from shock as she started shaking her arm like she was possessed. Her sister and others quickly reached out to her and tried to calm her down. The panicked shrieking toned down to rapid takes of breath as Yang kept her right arm extended away from herself.

"It's alright Yang, it's al-" Blake comforted her. What the Faunus didn't expect was her friend to snap at her:

"Shut up Blake! Just - just..."

Yang shook off the grips of her teammates and independently regained her footing. Now calmed down, she was looking at her arm and thought whether or not someone or something was playing a very cruel trick on her.

So she took a step forward and touched it with her left hand. She gripped below the hand and concluded:

_'It's...it's there...'_

She squeezed it harder for good measure but it didn't change the fact that she could feel it all - both a pulse and the pressure of her grip. However she wasn't convinced yet and thought of an another thing she would do to prove that this wasn't real.

Yang put her thumb in her mouth and bit hard.

"Yang, what the hell are you doing?!" Weiss screamed as she saw a little trail of blood coming from the finger. Weiss felt Ruby putting her hand on her shoulder and turned around to face her, only to see a look on her friend that could be interpreted as:

_'Let her do what she needs to do.'_

Yang, on the other hand, stared at her hand again. She felt the burning sensation of an open wound, as well as blood pulsing from it as her body's immune system was naturally forming a scab on it.

And then she started laughing. She was laughing like an utter maniac, which made her teammates look at each other and then at her with worry spelled on their faces.

"It's really back. Shit, I...I can't believe it's fucking back! Yeah!" Yang exclaimed as she jumped in joy, fist-bumping in the air. She went her now returned hand through her hair, obviously trying to look as cool as possible, and said:

"Salem better not be screwing with us now, otherwise..."

She stopped and looked at the rest of RWBY with the biggest shit-eating grin she could muster. They all knew what was coming - they accepted defeat as Weiss said:

"Get it out of your system, we know you want to..." Weiss grumbled, her mind fully prepared for what was to come as Yang continued:

"She's gonna find herself in _h-arm's_ way!"

The rest could only hold their groans as Yang wheezed on her own joke. Soon all of them gathered around her and gave her encouraging words, to which Yang replied:

"Heh, good to be back!" as she cracked her knuckles. She turned to Blake and calmly added:

"Hey, sorry for lashing out there."

"It's fine Yang, don't worry about it." Blake responded and paused for a moment as her eye caught wind of her thumb that still bleeding. A bit stupefied, she asked:

"Uh, shouldn't that have healed already?"

True enough, Yang knew her Aura should've automatically healed the bite mark. She decided to do it manually by focusing directly on the wound.

What surprised Yang was that she couldn't feel any trace of her power within her.

"Guys - I can't feel my Aura. Like, at all."

"Huh?" Ruby muttered out.

"It's like it was never there to begin with! Is it because...?" Yang stopped as she looked at her arm. Weiss stepped in and said:

"No, definitely not. I can't sense my own Aura at all. Blake?"

"Can't feel a thing. What about you Ruby?"

What Blake didn't know is that Ruby already went into position and jumped in the same way when she'd morph into rose petals. Obviously the rose petal part didn't happen and Ruby came crashing down on the floor.

"Nope! Doesn't work for me either!" Ruby said in a cheerful manner as she quickly got up and dusted herself, earning an annoying glare from Weiss and a chuckle from Yang.

The same whooshing sound Ruby heard came from behind Weiss, which stopped her little rant. The light particles started to form the people in the first row, which introduced the senior staff of Beacon, Ruby's and Yang's uncle & father, Weiss's sister as well as James Ironwood. What was most surprising is the appearance of both Oscar AND Ozpin separately, with the former Headmaster being in his previous body before the Fall.

As Ruby, Yang and Weiss ran to their respective family members, the light on the other two rows dissipated into other people, one of them being Blake's parents, Illia and Sun that she immediately rant towards to. And while RWBY was trying to explain the current situation (and Yang to shock both her dad and her uncle with her arm), team RNJR (sans Ruby) were waking from their own stupor.

"Ugh, I feel like I just went into a fistfight with an Ursa..." Jaune groggily said. Nora, who was beside him, said:

"Me too, fearless leader. Me...too...oh..."

Jaune looked up towards Nora and Ren, and was left confused both of them sporting wide-eyed faces of shock. They were looking over his shoulder, and before he could turn to see why they acted like they saw a talking Grimm, he heard a voice...a familiar voice that he was sure he would never hear ever again.

"Jaune?"

And there she was - Pyrrha Nikos, in the flesh. Uninjured, unchanged and full of life...just like Jaune remembered her.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune muttered out, flabbergasted. He thinks that someone is playing a cruel trick on him, that this Pyrrha is nothing more than an illusion. But that thought was shattered when he touched Pyrrha's hand that she extended towards him. Their hearts raced as they looked at each other with tears in their eyes and renewed hope in their souls.

"Pyrrha!"

"Jaune!"

Both of them leaped into each other's arms, and hugged tightly. Almost as if they were afraid of losing each other again.

They looked at each other with tearful eyes...and were promptly tackled by a crying Nora before they could do anything, well, _specific_. While Nora screamed how much she missed her, a content and happy Ren watched and smiled at the whole scene unfold, with Nora wiggling both of them as Jaune and Pyrrha started laughing.

This didn't go unnoticed, as the present people had mixed emotions of bemusement and happiness. And while Ruby was one of the more happier people, she couldn't help but sense the familiar feeling of guilt slowly creeping on her. But she decided to let the newly reformed JNPR have their moment - at least she could do was not interrupt them.

"Ruby?"

Her eyes went towards the source of the voice...which only lead with small tears forming in her eyes.

"P-Penn-"

"RUBY!" said the cheerful voice of Penny as she lunged at Ruby, who was still muttering out her name. The Huntress barely managed to stand her ground as her android friend collided on her in a hug.

"Penny, you're alive!" Ruby exclaimed as she hugged her back.

"It's so nice to see you again, friend Ruby!" Penny happily stated. However, when she looked at her friend's face, she saw small tears running down her cheeks, which left the android a bit confused.

"Ruby, why are you sad?" she asked.

"W-Well, people cry when they are happy too Penny." Ruby muttered as she tried to wipe her face with her sleeve.

"Oh! Well, good to know - thanks Ruby!" Penny smiled at her friend, which made Ruby all more happy - two of her friends were back, and there is nothing she could think off that could ruin this moment...

Well, almost nothing.

"That was oh so very sweet - sickeningly, if I'm being honest."

The sarcasm came from none other than the self-proclaimed Vale king of crime himself...

"Torchwick!" Blake shouted as she tried to reach out for her weapon, only to remember that Gambol Shroud isn't on her. All the other sitters are carefully watching Torchwick, who was without his trademarked bowler hat and was currently positioned on a gray seat.

"Relax Kitty Cat, I'd be out of my mind if the first thing I wanted to do in the _first few seconds of being alive_ is to fight you. See, unlike _you_ , I have my priorities pretty straig-"

Roman didn't get a chance to finish his sentence because he felt someone poking his back. He turned and saw a very welcoming sight (at least for him).

"Oh - hey there kiddo, how're you doing? Gotta say, the hat suits you." he spoke in his usually casual tone. He did mean it - his hat does fit Neo quite well. The only weird thing now was that Neo had her head down, with the feather on his hat poking his cheek. Roman quickly realized what was up when Neo looked at him with her tear-stained eyes.

"Ugh, come on Neo, don't cry - it's embarrass-"

She stopped him mid sentence with a tight hug. Roman knew there was no way he could fight her on this, so he only sighed and hugged her back.

"There, there...I'm here now."

Yang, on the other side, smiled and joked:

"Aw, so he does have a heart!"

"Don't ruin it, Blondie." he quickly responded, to which Yang chuckled as she continued her previous conversation with her dad and uncle.

It didn't pass even 5 seconds before more came in - two precisely, right above Roman and Neo's seat. The particles formed first the shape of Raven Branwen in her usual bandit attire without the mask; the second shape was that of Adam Taurus, clad in his gray combat suit and his personalized White Fang mask.

Both of them quickly came to their senses and immediately noticed each other.

"Branwen."

"Adam."

"Still leading that cesspool of degenerates you call a tribe?" Adam asked, with clear venom in his voice. Raven, however, only chuckled at the remark and responded:

"At least we're all true to ourselves - we know who we are and we don't _deceive_ ourselves."

Adam's brow twitched in a bit, showing Raven that she struck a nerve. She added:

"I see you still hide it."

"None of your business." Adam scoffed.

Before Raven could say anything, Qrow got up from his seat and spoke:

" _Raven_."

Her gaze went to her brother, who was looking at her with a mix of disgust and anger.

" _Brother_." Raven responded with a smile on her face.

"Don't _brother_ me - you've lost that privilege after you showed your true colors back at Haven." Qrow gritted through his teeth. Yang also wasn't looking very favorably towards her biological mother. Tai pinched the bridge of his nose and simply asked:

"Raven...what did you do _now_?"

"Made decisions and survived - not like _you_ would know anything about that."

Taiyang only sighed and remained silent as Qrow and Yang glared at her - he wasn't going to have this conversation again. Summer, Gods bless her soul, believed that Raven would return if she talked everything through, she could convince her to change and return to them, have Yang actually meet her mother.

But Tai knew that Raven had some of the most screwed up priorities when it comes to family. It's not that Raven can't change.

She just won't.

"Leaving your family for the company of cutthroats who rob the poor - great life decisions so far." Yang passed a sly smile to her mother, the kind that conceals the disgust you have for the person you're smiling at.

Yet another wooshing sound appeared, now coming from the black seats as the same particles from before now formed all the people above them - the people being the sworn enemies of the ones in the white seats.

The first one to come to her senses was Salem, who immediately took notice of everyone in the room. As well as seeing Ozpin in his form as the Headmaster of Beacon. The first thing on her mind would be to punish the currently incapacitated Cinder for lies if she didn't saw two people who were proven to be dead - the first being the lowlife Cinder hired as her own pawn, and the other being one of Ozpin's many fools who gave their relatively short-lived lives for him.

' _Restorative magic - is it just like the Brothers? Or perhaps something else? Whatever it is, it is now gone - I cannot detect any trace of magic anywhere, neither in this room...nor in me or Cinder. Inconvenient, but manageable.'_

Salem looked at er own skin, which was still ashen white with black veins protruding beneath it. But if her appearance didn't change...

 _'Then how come Cinder looks like before she was wounded by Ruby Rose?'_ Salem thought, curious of how this restorative magic works.

"Hazel, Tyrian - we have company." she said.

Tyrian eagerly jumped from his seat, looking like he was itching to rip someone apart at her command. True, he didn't have his weapons or his tail, but Tyrian will find a way to please his lady.

Hazel, on the other hand, calmly stood up while trying to contain his rage upon seeing Ozpin on the opposite side of the room. His expression filled with hate and utter disgust towards the former Headmaster was visible to all. However, Aura or no Aura, he knew better than to engage in a fight with a group that clearly outnumbered them.

Mercury kind of sat down and relaxed - he didn't really care much about what's happening. Sure, it was surprising to see Cinder alive, well and not looking like a freak anymore, but for now he just wanted to enjoy the long lost feeling of having actual toes. Of course, it didn't mean that he wasn't prepared if shit was about to hit the fan - he just wanted to puff out for the moment before that happens.

Above him seated Arthur, who was more perplexed about the room they were in rather than the occupants in it. Besides the massive screen and the theater itself, he noticed the lights symmetrically positioned on both sides of the room. The lights were floating orbs of...well, light. He would've appreciated that the situation doesn't escalate in combat, as he knew he was very inefficient without his weapons or Aura.

Emerald couldn't believe that not only Cinder was beside her, but that the injuries she suffered, as well as that...black arm she had. She had her beauty back, the one thing Ruby Rose took from her that almost drove her insane. But while the skin was mended back into place, the look in her eyes showed that the spirit was still furious. Rightfully so because she saw Cinder grit her teeth when she saw Ruby Rose hugging that stupid robot girl.

"ROSE!"

The Fall Maiden cried out, with all the hate and anger that cultivated inside of her after Ruby Rose crippled her at Beacon. However, her cry of hate was the high point of her threat, as she found herself completely incapable of neither conjuring her weapons or summoning fire balls. In fact, she found herself being incapable of doing anything at all.

"What?!" Cinder exclaimed as she looked at her shaking hands. She completely ignored the fact that she got back her arm and was now more stunted at her sudden lack of any magical power.

"Cinder - stay back. Wherever we are, this place took all of our abilities. And from what I can see..." Salem said, her mouth grew into a smile as she was examining Ozpin and all his lapdogs, both young and old.

Both the occupants from the white and black seats were tense and looked ready for a conflict. Roman and Neo on the other hand got up from their seats and went behind Raven and Adam - a smart choice (in Roman's opinion) for anyone not looking to be caught up in a potential crossfire.

"The same could be said for them."

The words of her mentor calmed Cinder down a bit. While there wasn't anything more that she could want besides curbstomping Rose to death, she was level-headed enough (for now at least) to recognize a losing battle of numbers. What did caught her eye were 2 two things - a familiar nuisance she killed at the Beacon tower and her presumed-dead employee.

"Roman, what a surprise - it seems the news of your death were greatly exaggerated." Cinder spoke in her mildly-threatening seductive voice. Emerald thought that the way she said was like her crippling injuries never happened. Like the old Cinder she knew and...adored, was back.

Roman, on the other hand, was a bit peeved that he had no cigars in his pocket. He responded:

"Cut to the chase, my dear - you want me back as a ' _less-than-willing_ ' employee, don't you?"

She smiled - while Torchwick knew his place and knew how much significance he had to her (which wasn't very much to begin with), she always found his inherent disobedient nature that came in form of his sarcastic remarks something to be removed completely. After all, a pawn that thinks for itself is something no good leader should have.

"Quite perceptive of you - of course, I am willing to be more generous than before and-"

"Ah, I'm afraid I have to stop you there. See, I'm currently on a...vacation of sorts, so I won't be looking for a job any time soon."

While he was conveying his response, the thief formed a fist near his chest while his other hand next to it was mimicking the action of pulling a lever. The more he ' _pulled_ ' it the more transparent was the middle finger that was slowly extending from his fist.

Roman stopped and looked at the middle finger that was pointing in Cinder's direction. He had a faux shocked expression on his face and exclaimed:

"Oh my - forgive me but I have no idea how THIS happened."

Snickers could be heard from the younger members at Roman's action. Cinder gave him a passive look that screamed 'you're-going-to-regret-that' while Emerald rolled her eyes and said:

" _Classy_ , Torchwick."

"For you dear? _Anytime_." Roman responded as both he and Neo looked at their former employer and colleagues with the smuggest of smirks.

Sensing the rising tensions between the three parties, Ghira stood up and pleaded:

"Please, can we not fight each other and calmly think where we are? Fighting among ourselves will not solve anything-"

"Hnh, I beg to differ. After all, it worked before...didn't it, Ghira?"

All eyes were on the grumpy terrorist that interrupted the Menagerie chieftain. Sun, in all of his wittiness, had a nice response (if he does say so himself) for Adam:

"Says the guy who got schwacked with a double-hammerfist."

Yang bursted a short and a hearty laugh and asked:

"Wait, really? Really?!"

"Yep. Seen it - it was _hilarious_." said Sun with a smile on his face.

"That's like the weakest and most telegraphed move ever! You can literally see it coming from a mile away! Ha ha ha!" Yang added and laughed even harder. Blake wasn't sure if Yang was low-key mocking her unarmed skills (which weren't that much good to begin with, if she was being honest) or Adam who got hit by, what Yang says, a very impractical and weak move.

Adam remained stoic in face of the mockery and decided to turn the tables on the blonde.

"Like that idiotic lunge that cost you an arm?" he mockingly said, noticing how Yang became a little distressed at his remark. But that wasn't enough for him.

"I know what you are thinking: _'no Aura, no weapons, no Semblance - he doesn't look that scary'_. Heh, let me enlighten you..." he got up from his chair and slowly walked out in front of the Grey seats, never breaking eye contact with the blonde girl.

"I don't need a weapon to take back what's _mine_."

Yang's eyes widened in shock. She looked at her right arm and knew what he meant by saying that. Her father was understandably pissed at the one who crippled his daughter, but Taiyang knew that he was goading her to attack him. Partially because no sane person would ever say something like that, and partially because Adam was in took a stance that was very familiar for him - left leg in front of the right one, knees bent for stability, left arm raised in front for defense and right arm was next to his face with an open palm.

 _'He's preparing himself for a counter throw!'_ Taiyang thought. However, he didn't get a chance to tell her as Yang, who was clearly pissed off to no end, cracked her knuckles and started walking towards Adam.

"Alright, it's a date then..."

Wherever the blonde's fist would go, either high or middle, Adam knew she wasn't going to land it. No Aura meant their bodies were considerably weaker and thus more prone to injuries - for him that was the foundation of his simple strategy: with a single step he grabs her fist with his left hand and her face with his right palm, then use Yang's own kinetic force of her obvious rush to stop her dead and finish it with his right palm literally slamming her head on the floor. Even if she decides to fake the rush, he would be fast enough to close the gap, use his own kinetic force to replace Yang's and perform the takedown. Best case scenario - she'd die immediately of internal bleeding in her crushed skull. But considering his luck at Haven and the girl's clear cut toughness, he'd be happy enough if she ended up with a light skull fracture.

"My fist..."

Yang, on the other hand, already formed a plan the moment she stepped out of the seats - fake the rush, stop dead in her tracks and then kick the bastard in the groin as hard as possible. Then a swift DDT will be enough to incapacitate him so she can break every bone in his arms - a fitting payback for what he did to her, if she did say so herself. Sure, she'd definitely get chewed on for doing brutal stuff like that, but that was the price she was willing to pay a thousand times over if she could do this a thousand times more.

"Your FACE!"

However, the potentially lethal confrontation ended not even a moment after it was started - as soon as both parties moved towards each other, some object flew out of nowhere and landed with a slam between Yang and Adam, causing a minor shockwave in the process which resulted in both of them recoiling back out of pure reflex.

When the shockwave dissipated, it was clearer to see what the thrown object was - an lengthy sword with two sharp protrusions near it's red handle which was diagonally embed in the ground. By the looks of it, the sword was thrown with such force that it looked like half of the blade was buried.

"Now, now..."

A man's voice that had a somewhat strange accent spoke in a playful manner, which was immediately followed by loud, obnoxious straw slurping.

"You kno' what they say - make love, not war."

Suddenly, a figure of a man jumped seemingly out of nowhere and landed on the on the hilt of the sword. The perfect landing was then followed by the man having awkward balancing issues as he tried to both put his other foot next to the other and not spilling the content of the plastic cup in his hand.

After a few seconds of that the man finally managed to get a hold of his posture and continued slurping from the straw jutting out of the cup.

The person in question that everyone was starring was somewhat burly and was dressed quite plain - a simple combo of jeans, black t-shirt and a pair of white sneakers with no distinguishable features. What actually stood out was a bronze mask that was portraying a bearded man wearing a shocked expression, which was held up by strings that were attached to the black cloth that completely surrounded the back of his head..

He was quite an absurd sight for most of the cast - a stranger (almost) gracefully standing on the hilt of a buried great sword while slurping (which could be described as annoyingly loud by Weiss) through a straw that was inside the mouthpiece of the mask he wore.

On the other side of the spectrum, both Adam and Yang sat down in their respective seats, but gave each other a silent glare:

 _'This is far from over.'_ both Yang and Adam thought.

"Uh, I'm sorry - who are you? Can you tell us where are we?" Blake asked, unsure of what to make of the whole situation.

The strange man simply extended a palm with an index finger out, signalling her to wait a bit as he continued slurping the drink. Some of the occupants either rolled their eyes or glared at the man with impatience and annoyance as he pulled out the straw and let exhaled.

"Well, yer in a theater, obviously - not yer everyday theater sure, but a theater nonetheless. As for who I am..." he paused as he came down from the sword. He pulled it out, showing that the sword was as long as he is tall (awing Ruby in the process) and somehow attached it to his back.

"Name's Bob. Noice to meetcha!" he said, extending his hand to Neo out of all people. The mute girl happily shook his hand in return. Some were surprised by the man's name, as it wasn't following their own tradition of color-coded names.

 _'Which means it's either a fake name or...no, I'll see where this goes.'_ James thought as he decided to see how the situation is going to unfold and proceed with agreeable measures.

"Heh, quite a fancy name you got there." Qrow snarked. Bob was quick with his rebuttal:

"I know, roight? Simple, write it backwards and ye end up with the same result. Yours tho - Qrow... with a **Q**. Seems to me yer parents were trying real hard to be special or whatnot."

Ruby jumped from her seat and pointed an accusing finger at Bob:

"Hey, it's a cool name for a very cool uncle! Unlike...well, unlike Bob! What kind of a name is that, huh?!"

Bob lightly chuckled at the girl's attempt to defend her uncle's coolness and decided to have some fun:

"Ya got me there little lass, m' name ain nothing special, sure. Unlike Ruby, which, if I might say, is a great stripper stage name."

"W-W-What?" Ruby stuttered, a creeping blush appearing on her cheeks.

"Gotta give it to ya, Tai, you and Summer do have a great sense of humor."

Most eyes now fell on Taiyang Xiao-Long. The man had a faint smile on his face, which slightly concerned his younger daughter a bit.

"Dad, this isn't true, is it?"

The blonde man, after suppressing a chuckle, said:

"I'm neither confirming nor denying that."

Ruby now felt like her world is going to fall apart, as she was left a stuttering mess after that response.

It wasn't really a secret between the Beacon staff and Ozpin's inner circle that Summer was a type 2 drinker - the type that drinks rarely, but when they drink - they DRINK. In one of those rare moments, Summer decided to form a stripper union after meeting a few girls in the profession, purely out of a misguided belief that strippers were being underpaid and oppressed by their employers and customers alike.

Since that practically wasn't possible in the long run due to her obligations as a Huntress (and the fact that every stripper she met thought of it as the joke of the century), she settled for the next best thing.

"My whole existence was a lie..." Ruby meekly spoke.

"Hey, cheer up Rubes - it was for the, uh, greater good? I guess?" Yang pat her on the back. She looked at the smiling faces of both her uncle and her dad as she tried to stifle her own laughter.

"A LIE!"

The lighthearted comedy was cut short as reality knocked on the door in the form of a question coming from General Ironwood himself:

"I don't mean to offend... _Bob_ ", James showed a tinge of skepticism behind the name, but continued onward,"but your answers barely gave us insight on our situation."

"Ah, well, when ye put it like that.." Bob walked right in the middle of the room, reason being so that everyone can see him clearly, and crossed his legs as he sat on the floor.

"I'm...well, a traveler of sort. I visit worlds an' their alternate timelines, mostly fo' exploration and fun through a passageway that I like to call ... **The World Betwixt**. That's where we currently are - more precisely, we're in a room located there, made by yours truly. Yes, Nora?" Bob noticed a hand among the younger audience.

"What does ' _betwixt_ ' mean?"

"It's an archaic form of the word ' _between_ '. I picked cuz it sounds cool. Anyway, y'all might be wondering why yer here to begin with..."

Bob got up and produced a black, ordinary television remote control out of some form of white mist in his hands. He pointed the remote in the direction of the giant screen, but just before the button was pressed, Bob added:

"It's because I've pulled ye out from this."

The expressions on most of the audience betrayed shock, distress and downright horror as they watched the capital of Mistral, as well as it's Huntsman Academy Haven, in flames and tinder. The city looked like someone put it through a faulty cremation chamber while the tower of the Haven Academy looked like an over-sized burning torch. The sky was ashen black as smoke and embers rose up to the sky.

What was even more appalling to the older audience members and the Schnees was that they could see the silhouette of the formerly floating city of Atlas, now crashed into the ground, looking like nothing but a massive pile of rubble now. It looked like someone picked it up from the sky and tossed it on the ground like crumbled paper.

"Pretty much all of Remnant is reduced to a burnin' pile o' rubble." Bob indifferently noted.

"What-What happened? Where are the others?! Are they...no..." Jaune murmured as tears started to form in his eyes.

"Sorry lad - the only ones that made it out alive are in this room."

"N-No! You're making this up!" Weiss retorted, but didn't expect Bob's next course of action.

He materialized the longsword in his hand and with a quick, vertical slice he opened what looked like an entryway or a portal that glowed light blue.

"Then step right up - yer free to leave any time you want, if you don't believe me. I ain't gonna stop ya." Bob leaned the blade of the sword on his shoulder as he added:

"The portal leads to a short hallway, and at the end is the portal to yer world - I'd normally say that you don't have ta worry about your Aura and yer weapons, since they'll be automatically given to you when ye step out in the hallway, but...heh, it ain't gonna help ya for what's waiting on the other side."

Weiss was...surprised at how Bob simply gave them a way out just like that. Surprised, suspicious and a bit confused - Bob claimed that he saved them all from whoever or whatever caused total havoc in Haven (and to what Bob is implying - all of Remnant too), but is now completely willing to let them all go like that?

 _'Is he doing this to prove a point or something?'_ she thought as she saw almost everyone second-guessing themselves, looking at each other as to find the answer in the other.

"Bah, hogwash!"

The only non-insecure person spoke up as he got up from his chair.

"Peter..." Glynda whispered, almost motioning her colleague and friend to stop whatever he's planning to do. Then she remembered this was Peter Port she was talking to.

"Since clearly no one's willing to perform reconnaissance, I might as well do - I'm still a Huntsman, you know!" The confident voice of the former Beacon professor boomed through the room. It was a kind of honest fearlessness that his former students kind of admired - perhaps all those prolonged stories about killing Grimm with his bare hands while smelling like cabbage weren't tall tales after all.

"Peter, you don't have to do this." Ozpin calmly spoke, to which Glynda added in her stern tone that betrayed worry:

"For the love of...Peter, you have no idea what awaits you on the other side! What if the air itself is un-breathable? What-"

"Relax, teach..." Bob interrupted," **A** \- the air is totally fine, so ol' Porty can breathe easy. And **B** \- if things go south, I'll bail 'im out - don't ya worry."

Port smiled, which was indicated by his mustache going upwards, as he confidently soldiered towards the portal.

* * *

The former Beacon professor ended jumping out of the portal, almost a bit too eager to see if Bob's claims were true. The second he exited Peter was hit by a familiar, heavy stench of burned wood with a dry, heated wind carrying it for miles and miles unending. The Haven tower was in front of him, extreme heat coming out of it due to the lingering flames inside it - even for Peter it would be absolutely impossible to enter the academy and inquire.

He could see the crashed form of the Atlas city not too far away, with more smoke than fire coming out of it - implying that Atlas was destroyed before Haven became a fiery mess that it is now.

What also unnerved him were the hundreds of charred corpses that were littered throughout the Huntsman Academy. What was disheartening was the fact that the bodies were burned so much that any individual traits a person could have so they could be identified were non-existent. In short, all bodies pretty much looked the same, with height being the only difference among them.

"Hello! Is anybody there?!" Peter yelled, silently hoping that Bob might be wrong and that there were some survivors.

Not a moment later Peter got his response...in a form of a elongated black arm that came crashing from the Haven tower. The arm itself was covered in mismatched bone armor, suggesting it might be some new kind of Grimm, but when it opened its hand to crush Peter it showed a single, cruel-looking pupil-less eye that glowed bright-orange.

Peter side-stepped the attack with ease and retaliated with a charged shot of his blunderbuss. However, what should've been a shot that can take a big chunk out of even the most toughest of Alphas, it only merely scratched the bony-white armor.

The hand dug itself up and looked straight to Port with a hateful gaze.

"Have I angered you, beast? Wouldn't be my first time...and definitely won't be the last!"

The hand swiped horizontally at him, but the chubby professor effortlessly jumped over it, showing that ,when it comes to Huntsmen, age and weight can never overshadow skill and experience.

Instead of turning to see where the Huntsman is, the hand blindly swiped back, potentially to catch him off guard and break every bone in his body. Peter, however, anticipated it and performed a backward jump. Whilst airborne, Port carefully aimed and shot at the exposed eye in the palm as it was performing its swipe attack.

A monstrous screech came from the arm as it squeezed itself into a fist. Glowing, orange liquid dripped from its fingers, which only confirmed to Port that its eye was actually its weak spot. A tricky to hit weak spot, but doable with a degree of skill.

What Port found surprising was the hand opening its palm again, revealing its bleeding eye that was now shinning bright. Port quickly aimed his weapon at the exposed eye again, expecting some kind of range attack coming from it as a last ditch effort to kill him. Unfortunately, he was proven wrong as he felt his whole body being restrained by an invisible force, probably coming directly from the shining eye. Both his arms and legs were spread wide open, making the Huntsman unable to perform any action whatsoever as he started to levitate towards the eye.

While Port began to worry a bit, his fearlessness remained still as he was preparing himself to take whatever punishment the hand had in store for him. A strange ringing noise began becoming louder and louder as Port tried to grit his teeth through the pain as he felt like his brain is going to explode.

Luckily, the ringing stopped soon, and so did the pain as whatever force held Peter dissipated, with the man ungracefully dropping to the ground.

'Ah, I think I'm going to feel that in the morning...' Peter thought as he tried to power through a sudden surge of weakness that was plaguing his body. Whatever the hand did to him almost managed to completely incapacitate the professor.

However, Peter Port was still determined to kill the best, even with the unexplained fatigue that was he was sure it was caused by the hand. He held his weapon proudly but struggled to hold his aim at the hand's eye.

Then four more hand beasts appeared behind the first one, and it was at this moment Peter realized he might've bitten just a little bit more than he could chew.

He heard a familiar sound behind him as he felt a hand grabbing his shoulder and pulling him back.

* * *

Bob thought it would've been a good idea to show everyone on the big screen what Port is going through, mostly so that his students and friends can see how their teach fares in a ruined Remnant.

To Bob's slight surprise, Peter proved to be a lot more agile than he expected. The crowd of students cheered for the professor whenever he pulled a perfect dodge and especially when he scored a critical hit.

And then he got hit with a Mark of Calamity.

 _'Welp, time to bail Porty I guess.'_ he thought as he sliced open a portal, shutting down the pleading cries from Port's students to help him as he shoved his hand through the opening, pulled out the chubby professor and quickly threw him at his colleagues. The Huntsman wasn't the only thing that came out of the portal, as a single dark hand managed to squeeze through the shrinking rift.

Roman always thought that bravery is for gambling addicts and suicidal idiots (like that Nikos girl) and he, after grabbing Neo, immediately ran behind Raven and Adam. He noticed the stupid kids in the white seats being frozen stiff - perfectly fine for him, since it means that they'll be the first on the menu.

But the expected massacre of the children was averted as Bob, in a blink of an eye, morphed his bronze mask into an ancient Mistrali (if the criminal assumed correctly) red demon mask with a spiky white moustache and a black bandana over it's forehead. For some reason there was a lit cigar in the mouth of the mask, but the more obvious change was that Bob swapped his overly-sized longsword for a slick and shiny katana that he used to pin the beast on the floor.

Bob then took the cigar and pushed the burning tip on the side of the blade, igniting it instantaneously and setting the creature on fire. The strange Grimm screeched in pain as it tried to thrash towards Bob with no success since he was out of its reach. After what was the most horrifying 10 seconds in Oscar's life, the beast fell on the floor and evaporated, just like a Grimm would upon death.

"The hell was THAT?!" Neptune asked, still sat on the chair with legs shaking in fear.

"It's one of the many things that destroyed yer world, all unleashed by a twat I was fightin'." Bob responded as he picked up the cup he dropped.

Ignoring the vulgarity, Glynda stepped up and demanded:

"What exactly happened, Mr. Bob? What did the person you were fighting do to our world?!"

Sheating the katana, Bob dusted himself off and responded:

"Got in what it looked like just another fight with a, well, let's say a _rival_ of mine that should've ended with me as the winnar, per usual. Unfortunately for ye, he turned out to be quite a sore loser and decided to vent his frustrations on you lot. Safe to say, y'all didn't stand a chance and, well, died. Heh." Bob morbidly chuckled as he took a sip from his drink.

"D-Died?!" Jaune stuttered. Weiss jumped from her seat and added:

"Then...then how come we don't remember anything you've said?! I'm not saying those creatures aren't there, but we should have recollections of our own...deaths." the former heiress shuddered a bit at the notion.

Bob scratched the bottom of his chin...well, the mask's chin, and responded:

"Y' see, loss of recent memory is one of the things that happens when ye try to form a body with only a soul as your only resource. It's not as costly in materials as a full-on resurrection like with Pyrrha and Roman here, but it leaves a few more side effects."

"Full-on resurrection? Can you explain this process a bit more?" Ozpin asked curiously, which earned him a glare from Glynda who thought he wasn't keeping his priorities straight...again. Nothing she could do about it now, she supposed.

"Resurrection, ta put it simply, can only be done on peeps whose souls still cling to ta physical worl' - usually in a form of a personal thingy that had quite a significance to them." Bob said in a bit more happier tone as he saw Roman smiling at Neo who was holding his hat in her hands while Pyrrha, upon closer examination, noticed both the golden tints on his armor as well as a red cloth dangling on his belt.

"Then what type of... _resurrection_ did you use on us?" Salem asked, the hint of skepticism hasn't gone unnoticed by Bob, whose response was:

"No real term for what I did - though I like to call it reconstruction since I literally reconstructed yer solid bodies from just yer souls. It's not really a skill that ya can learn - it's a result of using different combinations of rare artifacts I've, heh, _collected_ throughout my travels."

Jaune ignored the dubious nature of Bob's acquisition of the same relics that revived them all and asked a lot more important question:

"Did...did you manage to save anyone else?"

It definitely piqued the interest and worry of a lot of people in the audience. Their newly found fears, however, came true:

"Hadn't had a chance kiddo - if I did, yer souls would've fallen apart and my scavenge hunt for 'em would've been all fer nothing.  
See, souls themselves - unbound and free, are very unstable and could fall apart at any moment. Of course, a soul's tenacity varies from person ta person - , howevah, since I didn't have the prop'r equipment to bind them to objects like Pyrrha's and Roman's were, I was fighting against the clock to get all of ye that were either closest to me - like you lot," Bob pointed both the students and the majority of occupants in the Black seats, mainly Cinder and her group at Haven,"or the ones I definitely knew where they'd be.", now he looked towards the Beacon staff and Taiyang.

"Dude, if you managed to get me, then where are Scarlet and Sage? Shouldn't they be here too...right?" Neptune spoke with a hint of uncertainty, until it hit him a second later and realized what might've happened to his teammates.

"As I said, unbound souls are unstable and fragile. Sorry kiddo, they didn't make it."

Seeing how Sun was slowly sinking into depression and Neptune was having a mild panic attack. Jaune and Pyrrha already had tears in their eyes, knowing that their families are most likely dead.

Penny felt...odd. An ache appeared in her chest, in the same place where the human heart was, as she pondered on what happened to her creator. She couldn't utter a single word, and instead let out an involuntary sob whenever she tried to do so.

_'Is this...Is this grief that I'm feeling? I...I see.'_

Seeing how he set the current atmosphere to dishearteningly depressing, Bob decided to quickly step in and break the ice:

"Not all is lost though. Given time, you'll see your teammates and families again, safe and sound - like nothing ever happened."

At the end of his sentence, Bob opened the palm of his hand, with particles of light floating above it as they morphed into an object. The object in question looked like a small wooden hourglass with a microscopically small neck. The bulbs were round and had an identical line each - the difference being the color, with one of them, which was white, filled to the brim with sand while the other, that had a black line, was completely empty. The amount of sand that was passing through was so small that the only way it could be noticed is if one would hold directly to their face.

"Tell me, do yer scrolls come with a factory reset option?"

The question caught some off guard for a bit, with students looking at each other and wondering what the hell was he talking about. Arthur, being the only competent scientist with technical knowledge (at least in the room) spoke:

"Yes, they do. I presume that hourglass has a similar function with a different purpose in mind?"

"Could say like that - this lil' trinket has the power to rev'rse time and space of an area that it covers, the current area being yer world of Remnant. Once the black bulb is completely filled, everything will be back where it belonged and everyone will be there alive and well - like nothin' ever happen'd. And that's when ye can go home. But until then..." The hourglass disappeared in the same way as it appeared.

"Yer stuck here with yours truly." Bob added, obnoxiously slurping the content of his cup.

Hope was back in the hearts of many, and he was glad for it. Some were still skeptical, which was completely understandable to Bob - after all, arriving in some God-knows where place and hearing you've died and your whole world looks like a pyromaniacs dream really wasn't an everyday occurrence for a normal person.

For Bob, it was a Sunday Special.

He noticed a slightly raised hand that belonged to one Mercury Black as he gave him the go to speak up:

"That's cool and all, but what are we supposed to do while that does its thing? That bulb doesn't look like it's gonna fill up any time soon."

"Well, lad..."

Bob extended an arm and waved it around, as if he's showing the room for all of them.

"This is a theater that I made for meself - I use it mostly to re-live and reminisce of my experiences in all the world I've visited so far, as well as simply watch what's happenin' in other worlds. So yeah - we'll gonna be watching some stuff, y'all and me!"

The jovial delivery was met with awkward silence as everyone stared at Bob. Crickets, while physically not present in the room, could've been heard chirping - perhaps for a more comical effect?

"Did you take food, water and toilet into consideration?" Winter sternly asked, looking at him with a skeptical look. Bob figured out he probably didn't make somewhat of an impression to the elder Schnee as a responsible, thoughtful and organized individual.

Which he totally is.

At least in his mind.

"No need fer that - took liberties and hijacked yer metabolisms. Your restored bodies are completely self-sufficient and devoid of any need for nutrients."

"So we can't eat stuff? Like pancakes?" Nora enthusiastically asked.

"I said you don't need to per se..."

"But we can still eat pancakes, right?" she asked with even more enthusiasm.

"Only if ye behave."

Nora could've swore that Bob had a very smug grin beneath that cool demon mask of his. The only thing she could do is cross her arms and pout at him.

"So, besides the theater here this place also has an Adaptive Combat Training Area or as I'd like to call it - **ACTA**. There's also a music sound room and several dozen nap rooms - specially made for ye all. It's a literal pain in the arse to sit on those chairs all the time, no matter how comfy they are. By the way..."

Bob took another slurp as he added:

"We got some unwanted company."

Before anyone could react, with a flick of the wrist Bob threw a small metal piece that started hovering just inches in front Roman and Neo's seat. From the metal piece, which showed to be in a shape of a spider with pointy legs, came a mysterious low pitched sound as a burst a multitude of red web that somewhat acted like a barricade between the area where the occupants are and the front where Bob was. The web slowly disappeared from sight, but the spider piece was still floating.

"What's happening?" Weiss asked worryingly.

"Relax, yer safe behind this wall." Bob flicked a finger at the invisible wall, which reacted by briefly revealing the red spider webs at the point of impact:

"Just sit back and enj-"

With only two sounds, one of stabbing flesh and the other of liquid splashing on the ground - Bob never got to finish that sentence.

"BOB!" Ruby jumped from her seat, and banged her hands on the invisible barrier of the spider amulet.

Bob's whole body was now bloody from his wounds, golden circular blades either stuck or jutting out from every major part of his body. The circular blades were, in fact, part of a golden halberd that were wielded by, what looked like, white angelic creatures with beak-shaped red-colored faceless heads, shiny white wings and royal-looking red clothes adorning them. Soon the entirety of the other side of the room was brimming with the creatures, who entered from some invisible portals that shimmered the air around them. And by the looks of how armed they were and how battle-ready they seemed to be, it was clear that they all came for the singular purpose of killing their host, which they successfully achieved.

Or so they thought.

"Ma juice..."

By the sound of his voice Bob was completely fine. She couldn't help but to feel glad that the person who saved their lives somehow survived becoming a bloody human pincushion.

"Words cannot express...how full of rage Iam."

And indeed they could not, as Bob delivered that line in the most monotonous way possible. The delivery could've gotten out a few chuckles if not for the fact that almost everyone was in shock and awe of the present scene.

"But before I start my revenge rampage, first - music!"

What followed after was something that either made people hold their laughs or question themselves whether they are on drugs - Bob walked towards a wall on his left, while the white creatures that were currently impaling him were either latched onto his back or were trying to stop him by anchoring their feet on the ground...which ended up them being dragged by the soles of their feet. The whole scene looked so absurd that it even made some members of the black seats giggle.

The rest of the angelic creatures looked at each other in confusion to what's happening. Some of them gazed on the guests, but only for a mere few seconds - all their attention was on their target who was nonchalantly dragging their brethren as he was about to do something.

To the audience however, they saw Bob pulling out what looked like a music player. He stuck it firmly on the wall...

_'Eh screw it, the kid has a better theme now - tho it doesn't mean this one ain't good.'_

And pressed the play button.

_'Showtime.'_

* * *

[**SHALL NEVER SURRENDER (Battle Remix)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLBAFJWbd30)  
from **Devil May Cry 4**  
music by Tetsuya Shibata  
lyrics & vocals by Jason "Shyboy" Arnold

* * *

Bob nodded his head at the beat of the song's tonal buildup to get into the rhythm, but one of the angels behind him decided enough was enough and lunged at him with an overhead attack.

"Bob, look out!" Ruby yelled. Her reaction soon turned into one of awe as Bob simply grabbed the blade of the scepter with his bare hand. In response, Bob's only statement was:

"I got it."

And right on cue, the song reached its crescendo and Bob flailed the angel whose halberd he just caught and threw it on the other side of the room. He then began simultaneously removing the excess weight off him, which were the staves and the circular blades lodged in his body and used them as temporary weapons against his adversaries. He would pull out a weapon out of him and then either impaled a nearby angel with it or threw on another one, skewering it in the process - the shower of gore and blood of the creatures being the added bonus.

Besides being surprisingly fond of Bob's choice of music, Qrow noticed how Bob wasn't really taking this fight too seriously - he'd go on a limb and say that Bob was actually trying to style on his enemies. His assumption proved to be correct as when Bob removed the last weapon out of him, he tossed it straight in the air and threw an angel over his shoulder. He then turned his back on the angel and blew a kiss to Glynda, something the angel behind him would've taken advantage off if he didn't get impaled by the airborne halberd above it.

And while Glynda didn't look impressed at all, Qrow gave an approving thumbs up - he always respected of a fellow fighter who prioritized styling on the battlefield.

More angelic creatures appeared literally out of thin air, slowly approaching towards Bob with murderous intent.

" **Giant Father!** " Bob yelled out, extending his arms horizontally as a mocking gesture.

With an energetic sound and a spark of black energy accompanying his exclamation Bob's mask shifted into the first one he had. He had his over-sized sword back, among other new things such as a concentrated ball of fire in his left hand and a decorated green shield on his back.

_**The time has come** _   
_**and so have I** _

The music toned down when the lyrics are introduced, and it showed on the fight as the angels were carefully walking towards the masked swordsman. He, on the other hand, rested the blade on his shoulder and was lightly tapping it in anticipation, all while not breaking sight of his enemies.

_**I'll laugh last** _   
_**cause you came to die** _

_'Damn that's a badass line!'_ Yang thought, an excited smirk on her lips as she watched the weird angel things and Bob sizing each other up.

_**The damage done, the pain subsides** _   
_**And I can see the fear clear when I look in your eye** _

The moment the instrumental begain blasting again, Bob quickly dashed with a forward stab of his Zweihander, which was barely blocked by the creature as it clumsily staggered back. The stab transitioned into a horizontal slash to the left that turned into a spin slash. Anything he managed to hit was carried by his blade and spun around before being thrown to the wall.

Bob then rolled out of an attack that came from his left side and retaliated with an upwards slash that launched the attacker airborne. Bob hastily jumped and performed a simple 3-hit combo in the air that ended with a downwards slash that brought both Bob and his enemy to the ground way faster than it was physically possible, cleaving the angelic creature in half.

When it comes to killing your enemies in the coolest ways possible, gravity somehow stops becoming a hindrance. What a convenience!

Not counting the whole gory aspect, Weiss was quite impressed with Bob's combat ability, considering the size of his sword. Although she never quite understood the need to perform unnecessary stunts to look "stylish". Sure, one does have to keep in mind to look prim and proper in a fight when possible, but the things Bob does now (which do remind her of what Ruby's uncle did when he publicly sparred with her sister) are ridiculous and completely over the top!

Although she would be lying to herself if she didn't admit to find his fighting style entertaining to watch.

Jaune on the other hand felt a bit...inadequate, watching how Bob wielded his great sword with ease. When he upgraded Crocea Mors to have a great sword form, he didn't really get to practice with it much - and that almost got him killed at Haven. But instead of wallowing in self-pity like the classic Jaune would, he's now carefully analyzing what moves Bob is using at what situation.

Unbeknownst to him, Pyrrha was watching him while he concentrated on Bob's fight, and she couldn't have been more proud of him now.

It seemed like for every angel-like being Bob killed two more would take its place. That was the routine for the past few seconds until a something new emerged - looks wise it was pretty much the same as others besides the color of the robes being swapped from red to blue. The novelty was that the new addition was double the size of a regular angel.

_**I'll never kneel and I'll never rest  
(Never rest...)** _   
_**You can tear the heart from my chest  
(My chest...)** _

The big sized angel swung down its enormous weapon at Bob, who in response pointed two finger guns at the angel and exclaimed:

" **Sniper Blade!** "

His bronze mask, in a flash of blue light, morphed into one of an angry white wolf with black eyes and actual fur. The 'mask' looked more like Bob was carrying an embalmed wolf head on him.

The Zweihander on the other hand morphed into a scoped large sniper rifle with a bowie knife attached on the barrel of the gun, which he used to parry the incoming attack, recoiling both his and his adversaries weapon. Ruby let out an excited 'oh' sound when she saw that Bob was also a fellow sniper rifle user.

_**I'll make you see when I do best** _

The angel went down with another vertical slice. Instead of parrying again, Bob rolled between its legs. When he found himself directly behind it, he aimed...

_**I'll succeed as you breathe your very last breath!** _

And a shot rang out from the rifle, killing the angel on the spot and sending its chunks of meat and blood flying through the room. The invisible barrier Bob put between the battleground and his guests also worked as sort of a windshield - wouldn't be good if the cast was completely covered in angel blood and body parts right? After all, his washing machine has it's limits.

_**Now I know how the angel fell** _   
_**(Just kneel...)** _

Bob rested the rifle on his shoulder and pulled the trigger, hitting an angel that was just about to lunge at him from behind.

_**I know the tale and I know it too well** _   
_**(Just bow...)** _

He held the rifle with both hands and squatted, with one leg jutting out for stability and quickly shot the two incoming lesser angels. He dodged an slash that came from his left and retaliated with his own attack - he started spinning the rifle upwards with a single hand. The multi-hit attack connected, sending the angel airborne and finishing it with a single shot that made it explode into tiny bloody pieces.

"Nice." Mercury commented, to which both Emerald and Cinder beside him looking at him a bit questionably. Well, it was more Cinder doing that and Emerald mimicking what was Cinder doing.

"So...much...blood...YAY!" Nora enthusiastically cheered (as she was more open to her bloodlust than Mercury), and was a little pumped up herself. Screw the reason behind their attack, she just wanted to get in and kick some weird bird-like ass with Bob.

_**I'll make you wish you had a soul to sell** _   
_**(Soul to sell...)** _   
_**When I strike you down and send you straight to hell!** _

Bob kept killing and the angel's kept coming. This time more of the larger elite angels spawned, seemingly to give Bob as little breathing room as possible. However, Bob yet had to show any signs of tiredness, as Bob's mask flashed orange light, changing into the familiar moustache demon with a cigar in its mouth. He had one hand on the cigar while the other resting on the now morphed katana on his hip and exclaimed:

" **Cigar Edge!** "

_**My army comes from deep within** _

He parried both attacks with a quickdraw of his blade and dashed forwards, removing their torsos from the legs. The cuts were so clean and quick that it took a good second before blood started violently spraying from the stumps.

_**Beneath my soul, beneath my skin** _

Taiyang noticed that whenever Bob performed whatever move that required extreme speed there was a trail of orange light which was coming from the tip of the burning cigar in Bob's mask...mouth. While he had absolutely no clue if the cigar serves any other practical purpose beside lighting the blade on fire, he had to admit that it did look pretty cool.

_**As you're ending, I'm about to begin** _   
_**My strength is pain and I'll never give in!** _

Adam on the other hand wasn't that impressed. Sure, Bob's speed was astounding and, in combat terms, outclassed his own, but his skill with the sword was pretty basic to his standards. Though he did remain open to the idea that Bob might be intentionally holding back - the shameful defeat at Haven had taught him to never underestimate his enemies, no matter how weak they might initially appear to be.

_**I'll tell you now I'm the one to survive** _

Bob dashed straight into a group of lesser angels and executed several rapid swings around him, cutting the angels into pieces while maintaining a striking pose on one knee.

_**You'll never break my faith or my stride** _

He then chucked the blade into a group of enemies, and somehow managed to decapitate every single lesser angel it hit before being stuck in the gut of an elite angel. While the blue-robed angel was writhing in pain, several more of his kin emerged behind Bob. To him, they looked fresh and ripe to enter his little blender, so he slided like a rockstar towards the angel that had his blade and removed it by partially bisecting it.

Instead of dashing like before, Bob stood in his place and has taken a stance, first by sheathing his katana.

Salem was, almost with anticipation, waiting to see what will Bob do next. It was quite natural for her since, besides the antics and bickering between her servants that happened when they thought she wasn't watching them, the Grimmlands were a very boring place with a very limited source of entertainment. That is if you can call the constant fights between her Grimm 'entertainment'.

Watching an oddly dressed man fighting odd creatures in an unnecessary flamboyant fashion with music in the background that has a catchy tune and lyrics that oozed bravado proved to be very...amusing.

_**I'll have you choke on your own demise** _

And then she noticed a gleam in his eye just moments before he disappeared from sight...

_**I make the Angels scream...** _

Multiple orange lines zig-zagged through the group of angels appeared as soon as Bob vanished...

_**And the Devil CRY!** _

The second Bob reappeared in the same spot, with the katana now unsheathed, was the moment the orange trail lines disappeared...and the moment when all angels fell down, with blood spraying from every cut Bob inflicted on them.

And boy were there a lot of cuts.

What went unnoticed until now was the fact that the room, while completely covered in blood, wasn't chockful of corpses. The reason being that, as soon as the angel beings died, they dispersed by breaking down into golden dust that shortly disappears into nothingness.

"WOOOOOO! YEAH!"

Bob turned around to see Nora pumping her fist in the air, and judging by the faces of other younger folk - they all liked this little pseudo set-up he had. But before anything could be said and done...

"What's happening now?!" Jaune asked outloud, as the entire light of the room suddenly turned light blue. While the barrier between them and Bob was still there, both the students and teachers couldn't help but be concerned about what will happen next. The only thing they could hear was a young man's voice diligently saying:

" _ **Sensei, onegaishimasu!**_ "

Then out of nowhere a door appeared on the other side from where Bob is. Golden, metal frame surrounded the door, which had a Mistrali-looking painting of two dragons, one white and the other black, circling around each other.

The door slid open, from which came Bob's next opponent.

"Watch yer step, ol'man." Bob said, pointing a finger at him.

The 'old man' in question was clothed in, what Ren noticed, a very traditional swordsman garb - a kimono of sorts (that had white lotus flowers on his chest for some reason). Besides the kimono, the man had a pair of Kotes and Kogakes, both being pieces of traditional Mistrali swordsmen. A straight katana was sheathed on his right hip and seemingly had no other weapons present on himself.

He also sported graying short spiky hair, thick eyebrows and an impressive beard - and judging by his expression, he wasn't very amused by Bob's comment.

"Don't get cocky just because your master defeated my master."

"Whatever ye say, oh _Great Sensei_."

Sensei smiled at his opponents response, as he gracefully pulled out his blade and responded:

"Prepare to face my _new_ secret technique."

Safe to say, everyone on the other side of the room had no idea what just happened.

* * *

[ **PLEASE MR. SENSEI**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fFet7rRu-Q)  
from **God Hand**  
music by Masafumi Takada

* * *

And now something akin to a very stereotypical traditional Mistrali song(though Lie Ren could swear it was supposed to be a borderline parody of it) started playing as Sensei slashed at the air and taunted Bob with:

"Peaceful as the Forest! Strong as the Mountain!"

...

And while everyone who was well read in ancient Mistralian philosophy and/or was of Mistrali birth could actually recognize the origins of Sensei's words, the rest of the cast couldn't for the life of them figure out what the hell did the old man mean with that quip.

Bob in return put up his hands in a snake-like fashion. His weapon was completely gone and his mask turned from a ruthless demon with a moustache and a cigar to a more jovial look - a bearded golden-skinned man with a ponytail and slits for eyes sporting an 'O' expression.

" **Drunken Master!** "

If Penny was judging by appearances, this new combat form is most likely leaning towards hand-to-hand encounters. But since his opponent is clearly armed, why would Bob trade his own katana for bare fists?

 _'Perhaps the answer to that will be revealed if I gathered more data!'_ Penny thought as she watched the fight unfold.

And unfold it did, as Sensei made the first move by crouch leaning towards Bob as he rapidly thrust his sword at him. Instead of blocking or even running away, Bob stood in place as he dodged all of his attacks by using a combination of crouching and torso twitching in various directions.

Sensei immediately followed with two horizontal slashes that ended up with a vertical slash. Bob dodged the last attack by dodging sideways and instantly countering with an uppercut that sent the old man in the air. He then performed a scissor kick, which juggled Sensei in the air and then finished with a powerful roundhouse kick that launched the samurai on the other side of the room.

"Ah, nicely done!" Sensei spoke as he got up, looking no worse for wear. He then slowly spin his sword in front of him to the left, which made his sword glow bright orange.

_'Clones? Nah, he said NEW secret technique, so-'_

Bob's train of thought was halted as, with each strike of his sword, Sensei was throwing orange crescent waves of energy at him. Surprised, but not caught off guard, Bob rapidly dodged in the opposite direction of the angle of the blades.

To not give him time to repeat the new secret technique or try to perform the dreaded old technique, Bob rushed with a flying kick that made Sensei stumble backwards, which was followed by a series of unorthodox punches that required to sway his body left and right, which only made him look like he was completely drunk.

Hence the name of the style.

While Yang thought that Bob looked utterly ridiculous with his over-the-top moveset, her dad was very familiar of the technique he was using. He remembered how much of a pain in the ass was to fight someone who mastered the 'drunk' moves, mostly because the user of the style was both very flexible against almost anything and it made the user completely unpredictable in a fight.

Sensei raised his sword to parry Bob's next attack and then retaliated with a jumping slice, which Bob simply sidestepped and took advantage of the samurai's vulnerability to juggle him in the air with somersault kick. Instead of the jumping roundhouse, Bob performed a high side kick that had the same launching effect, albeit not as powerful as the former.

The old swordsman recovered quickly and began spinning his glowing sword to the right. Upon finishing the spin, Sensei conjured four identical clones of him, all ready to slice Bob into pieces. But the masked man was unfazed and said:

"Bring it on!"

As both sides rushed into combat, Blake couldn't help but notice a peculiar thing with all of the Sensei's - only one of them cast a shadow on the ground. And when Bob delivered a few punches at a shadowless version, it turned black before bursting into red particles, suggesting that the real Sensei is the one with a shadow.

Usually, she'd immediately point out something like that, but considering how Bob fared so far (with him not taking a single hit from Sensei), she assumed he probably knew about that already.

Ruby had a different opinion though.

"Bob, all the clones don't have a shadow!"

The music stopped and all both Bob and Sensei were frozen stiff in place at the exact moment Ruby finished her sentence. Both combatants (and the clones) turned their heads towards Ruby and literally shushed her.

"Uh, sorry?" Ruby scratched her head, feeling a bit awkward now.

After full five seconds, Bob was first to speak to his adversary:

"The mood is ruined, ain't it?"

"I must agree on that."

With a flick of his sword, Sensei dissipated the rest of his clones and dusted himself off.

"Shall we resume some other time?"

"Yeah, ya know where ta find me."

Both men took a step away from each other and respectfully bowed to one another. The golden door appeared once again out of thin air and disappeared in the same way once Sensei left through it. Now with Sensei gone, the barrier between the audience and Bob was lifted as the spider amulet floated back into Bob's hand and dissipated.

"And here I was beginning to enjoy the ' _How to beat old people 101_ ' course before Red here had to ruin everything like a party crasher she is." Roman sighed in faux disappointment.

"No, you're a party crasher Torchwick!"

"Legendary comeback there Red."

As Ruby and Roman were having a little pout, Bob took the time to open a hidden closet in a side wall and pull out a sweeper and a bucket that was already full of water.

"Cut it out, both of you! I want to know what in the hell just happened?!" Weiss yelled out.

"Well...",Bob started as he began scrubbing the blood of the floor,"The old man I just fought was a student of someone that my teach beat a long time ago. Funniest part is that his teach actually wanted to beat mine so he can restore his students honor or something - didn't go very well for him, as you might've guessed..."

"Yeah, I think everybody figured that one out pretty easily. What's the deal with those angel things that almost turned you into Valean cheese?"

 _'Valean, huh? Interesting...'_ Bob thought before responding:

"Those were Affinites an' Applauds of the Third Sphere, which is a lower-ranking caste among the Angels of Paradiso. "

"Paradiso?" Ruby asked.

"Dunno what's the deal with yer religion, but I'm pretty sure you have concepts like Hell and Heaven? Well, Paradiso is Heaven."

"Uh, what?" Sun uttered as he scratched his head in confusion.

"Those were Angels - actual Angels of Heaven trying to kill you?" James questioned, clearly showing suspicion on the honesty and benevolence of their _'savior'_.

"A price to pay fo' being a good pal to one of the coolest, most badass woman to ever exist. The Angels kinda wanted to kill her at first due to being their polar opposite in the whole "light-and-dark" balance of their world, but now they REALLY want her off because she punted the physical manifestation of their God into the frigin' Sun."

While some of the older members remained skeptical, the students looked amazed and impressed by what Bob just said.

"Will we get to meet her? Will we? Will we?!" Nora excitedly jumped around, which made Ren put a hand on her shoulder.

"Maybe, maybe not. Who knows?" Bob coyly responded as he continued cleaning all the blood in the room.

"I presume that the Paradiso God is quite different from the Brother Gods, correct?" Ozpin asked, which drew Salem's attention. The answer came out quickly:

"Yeah, kinda - doesn't matter tho, she can eat both of them for breakfast. Literally." Bob broke out a short laugh as he dried the sweeper in the bucket.

"Literally?"

"Yep - she can summ'n Demons that are bound by a contract. Most of them are always hungry and/or bloodthirsty and will happily tear, smash, chomp, swallow and even peck to death anything of divine origin. Or anything in their path really - it's pretty awesome when you get to see them in action. Anyway..."

With a splash of water that came from putting the sweeper in the bucket, Bob wiped the metaphorical sweat from his brow as the entire room looked squeaky clean. The only thing he needs to do now was to patch the crack on the floor that he caused with the throw of his sword.

_'Eh, another time.'_

"Will something like this happen again in the foreseeable future?" Glynda asked, eyeing her host as a part of the wall slid open, revealing a small closet space that he used to store the bucket and the sweeper.

"Can't guarantee anythin' my dear Glyn."

"Please don't call me that."

"Whateva ya say _Glyn_." Bob retorted with a small chuckle, fully aware of being the receiver of Glynda's scrutinizing glare( _trademarked_ ).

"But y'all don't havta worry cuz' yer under my protection now. Besides, I saw some of ye enjoyed the little party that went here, eh?"

"Those bouts wouldn't be an issue if we had our abilities back." Cinder spoke politely, in a way that subtly demands something of the listener.

"You'd like that, wouldn'cha? Ain't gonna happen lass, end of story." Bob responded, completely ignoring the ex-Fall Maiden's mildly annoyed expression. He pretty much knew that the only thing Cinder would want right now is to either kill Rose or kill Ozpin again - maybe even both. And to top all that, she didn't even thank him for the beauty work he did on her. Something definitely has to be done about that...

"Alright, I guess it's time. Let's get started, shall we?"

With two claps the lights dimmed and the screen began glowing bright as the cast eagerly awaited what will unveil in front of them.


	2. Boy MEAT Girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews and criticism are welcome, but I'm not accepting any requests/suggestions. Guest reviews that do that will be ZAPPED!  
> Sauce: Gamer Bread ad; "A Meat Bicycle Built for Two" Borderlands 2

"But before we start...let's hear a word from our sponsor!" Bob suddenly exclaimed as he walked away from the center of the room.

"Uh, say that again?" Blake stuttered out. The screen was, for the first time in quite some time, now on and playing the advertisement, much to the confusion of many.

**The opening scene showcased a generically handsome pair of Huntsmen in a plain grass field that, judging by the black smoking corpses around them, just finished killing a whole pack of Grimm.**

**"To be in constant tip top shape, you need FUEL!" A generically action-sounding narrator spoke.**

**"Introducing HUNTSMAN BREAD! The world's first HIGH-PERFORMANCE BREAD made for HUNSTMEN & HUNTRESSES!"**

**A black bag, that had the words HUNTSMAN BREAD written all over it, was presented on a fairly lit gray background. In the next shot the bag was zipped open, and from it fell out pieces of ordinary-looking white bread.**

"Wait, what? Is this for real?!" Jaune was completely flabbergasted, as were most of his peers, as he wondered who in their right mind would sell something like this.

"That looks delicious, so it's good enough for me!" Nora happily chirped.

Arthur could not believe that even Ozpin would stoop so low to accept mental ward cases with perception of a half-blind drunk if they seriously couldn't notice the godsdamned disclaimer on the bottom how the product isn't real.

**"It's got an AMBIDEXTROUS GRIP, strengthens TRIGGER FINGERS and improves DEXTERITY!" the narrator added as the ad showed hands performing some very simple tricks that was showing it's impressive ergonomic design.**

"It does all that, huh? Guess it's perfect for..." the blonde brawler started.

"Yang, please don't." Ruby pleaded.

"A bread-cercise!"

"Ugh..." Ruby groaned, while Yang's smile represented the amount of fucks given to her sister's reaction.

**"And when you're done, FUEL up with MAXIMUM CALORIC DENSITY for MAXIMUM FOCUS!" as the Huntsman from the beginning took a massive bite out of a plain slice of Huntsman bread(tm), the the scene transitioned into one where the Huntress is using a piece of the bread to clean her weapon.**

**"DUAL FUNCTIONALITY also cleans your weapons! Order now at )*##% # & )%(!#%!"**

_'Imaginary product advert as filler? Eh, could be worse I guess.'_ Sun thought.

 _'If I could, I would've killed that moronic host with the idiotic name for making me watch this garbage.'_ where Cinder's thoughts, while she herself looked bored out of her mind.

"Wait, what happened there? Was that supposed to be the website address or...?" Qrow asked, expecting Bob's swift answer that came out...well, swiftly.

"Ye, it was s'pposed to be that, but fer the lyfe of me I can't find out why it won't show 'em. Happens with every site I try to present on the screen - pisses me off to no end.. Funny enough, I actually have a theater screen that does show website addresses but I forgot where I archived it..."

"Bob, is this really a _'sponsor'_ or did you make something up?"

"Dunno - ya tell me."

Bob chuckled as he skedaddled to the other side of the room, out of sight of his guests.

**The story begins in the desert plains of Pandora, where there is as much sand as the eye can see. Truly - the place is literally in the middle of goddamn nowhere. And yet, humanity manages to survive even in harsh environments such as these, mostly by forming settlements around some sort of lifeline they can hold on to - usually being a water source. Some settlements manage to pull themselves together and thrive, while others...**

**Not so much.**

**If we were to be precise, our story (which was accompanied by a soothing synth tune that played in the background) begins in such a settlement, now reduced to rusted, metal wreckage that is adored with an occasional corpse that the resident Psychos left for shits and giggles or is occupied by some visitors, mostly bandits and scavengers looking to pillage whatever leftovers there are.**

"Place sure does look friendly. Don't recognize it though, and I've been through Vacuo already." Qrow commented.

"Care to shed some light on this, Mr. Bob?" Oobleck asked, as he adjusted his glasses.

"Sure can - whachu looking at here is a planet called Pandora, where pretty much everything is outta kill ya - animals, plants, weather, environment, insane bandits or insane settlers. This desert is just one of the many regions that stinkhole of a planet has, couple with the fact that an average day lasts about 90 hours."

"Who would live on such a planet?!" Weiss scoffed.

"Well, he did say the settlers ARE insane..." Jaune noted.

**_'I don't know the dead man. Probably didn't deserve what he got.'_ An ethereal-sounding voice of a girl spoke to no one in particular.**

**In this case, the wreckage had both - a fresh corpse that was hanging on its arm from the top of a giant claw that may or may not have served as a part of a larger building (but who cares anymore, really?) AND a wandering armored bandit that was silently staring at the corpse, thinking deep thoughts such as guessing if his toe itches or if he has a pebble in his shoe.**

"Oh, Pyrrha's the narrator - cool!" Nora chirped.

_**'Doesn't make him special though. All kinds of people die out here...'  
** _

"Though I wish I was narrating something a bit more cheerful..." Pyrrha silently spoke to herself.

**The bandit scoped in with the sight of his rifle to take a closer look at the body, perhaps to see if it was worth cutting it loose for loot.**

_**'The innocent...'** _

**He proceeded forwards after he was done checking the hanging corpse, completely unaware that near him was a tall and fairly muscular girl that was sitting on a nearby boulder.**

**The ' _muscular_ ' part was undeniable as she had a hard six-pack on her stomach, although the proportions of her other body parts looked off-putting - her arms were bigger and thicker than her legs, and her chest was almost the same size as her legs.**

**For clothing choices, the girl wasn't really modest - tattered green pants with some metal protection here and there, same could be said about her gauntlets only the metal parts being way more prominent. Her chest was fairly big, with only several wrappings of bloodied cloth to cover it.**

**Her face was obscured by a leather gas mask with open lenses - or one open lens really, since one of the straps was effectively covering her right eye. Besides the bright red hair that looked haphazardly cut, there really wasn't much that could show what was going through her head.**

**She bashed her tool on the rock - the tool looked like it was made by someone who managed to fit a blade of a buzzsaw into a handle of an axe - a buzzaxe, if one would name it.**

_**'And the not so innocent.'** _

A catcall could be heard and traced to Yang.

 _'No surprise there.'_ Weiss thought, as she readied herself for yet another 'yang-wful' pun. She almost retched in disgust, realizing she might've contracted the disease of being painfully un-punny.

"Damn, P! You're ripped to heck - now you can literally muscle your way to a certain someone's heart." Yang spoke with a sly smirk.

What completely baffled her are the questionable looks she was getting, almost as if she said something very questionable.

"Uh, firecracker, not to bust your bubble BUT you kinda sounded a little bit...uh, how do I say this nicely?"

And then it hit her.

"Oh, I, heh, I didn't mean to sound like that. Context, you kn-?"

"Blondie, it's no secret that you act on your tendencies, but for the love of everything at LEAST keep it to yourself."

The white seat audience had either an expression of surprise or straight-up shock while the others had either an amusing smirk on their faces or they remained passive because they simply didn't care. The latter only being Adam, naturally.

"What're you talki- you know, just shut up, you're making stuff up, I just know it!" Yang responded.

"Junior would've said otherwise." Roman smiled as he saw the Huntress now being put in a corner with absolutely no way out.

"That doesn't count!"

"Not to mention you initiated the whole thing in the first place. The poor guy just wanted to run his business and you just had to come along and grab him by the-"

"So what?! Junior was obviously a criminal, just like you, so why should I care, huh?!"

Roman's response was letting out a victory giggle, knowing fully well what will happen to the Blondie now. He and Neo shared a high-five before leaning back comfortably in his chair. Before she could give the thief a piece of her mind, she felt a hand on her shoulder as a familiar voice spoke:

"Yang, you and I will have a little talk later."

Yang turned to see her dad, who really did have that _'I-know-you-screwed-up-and-I'll-deal-with-that-soon'_ kind of face. With no way of winning this battle, she decided for now to look grumpy and wait for the lecture that is to come.

Pyrrha, on the other hand, almost completely ignored the revelation that Yang might be a sex offender and mostly focused on herself on the screen and noticed a few things, the primary being that, while her friend was right about being 'ripped', she knew better to know that the girl before her had an unhealthy amount of muscle. She would've suspected steroids were the case if she didn't have such...enlarged assets, which made her flush a bit considering the girl before her had bandage wraps around her chest, which can hardly be considered as sturdy attire.

Besides that, Pyrrha thought that she looked like a Vacuan bandit, only...different. In what way, she doesn't know.

**The girl noticed the bandit and quickly came down from the rock. While the bandit was casually strolling and looking around in front of him, the girl, who wasn't really far behind him.**

_**'If I'm lucky, he hasn't noticed me yet.'** _

**She spun the makeshift tool and threw it in the air like some sort of novice juggler that has just begun learning his trade.**

_**'I wanna warn him. I want to tell him to run, to hide, to get out of sight so I won't have to kill him.'** _

"Why would you kill him? For what!?"

"Dunno Weissy - he did mention that this Pandora is full of insane bandits, and that guy pretty much looks like one. Slice first, ask questions later?" Nora responded to Weiss, to which she had to agree - the man did look like a bandit.

But then again, so did the hilariously muscular version of Pyrrha Nikos.

**And just like a novice juggler - or well, a novice in any skill that requires good reaction and timing, she failed to grab the tool in time as it was clumsily dropped on the ground. Somehow the bandit didn't notice any of this going on behind him, blissfully unaware of the danger he's currently in.**

_**'That's what I want to say...'** _

_'Okay, so I don't actually want to kill him. Am I not in control of my own body here?'_ Pyrrha thought to herself, as she became slightly concerned over what she was about to do next.

**Buzzaxe picked up and in hand now, the female Psycho tilted her head slightly as her visible eye twitched - which in her case can only be attributed to suppressed blood-lust ready to be unleashed. For her it seemed like the entire world just turned into a bloody shade of red, with the relaxing music coming to a silent halt.**

"Yeah, that bandit is very much dead. No doubt about it." Mercury commented.

"R.I.P. Mr. Bandit - we hardly knew you." Emerald added.

_**'What actually comes out of my mouth is...'** _

**The Psycho charged towards the bandit and shouted out loud:**

**"I HAVE THE SHINIEST MEAT BICYCLE!"**

**In hindsight, the bandit probably should've replaced the batteries on his hearing aid this morning, because it took a madwoman screaming out bizzare obscenities to turn around and see the aforementioned madwoman, who was now airborne and held a buzzaxe above her head. As it was far too late to retaliate, the bandit could only utter a painful, almost girlish-sounding cry that was followed by a sound of chopping flesh as the world around him was replaced with a black void of nothingness - which was probably the afterlife.**

...

"Did I hear that right?" Port spoke first, followed by Qrow who added:

"Yep - _'I have the shiniest meat bicycle'_."

It didn't took him long before he was reduced to giggles. Other followed suit while the rest were simply baffled at Pyrrha's bizarre choice of words.

_**'Eh,** **close enough...'** _

"If that's close enough, then I don't wanna know what's the opposite."

"Getting bit of a scare there, Mr. Torchwick?" Tyrian added, with casting his trademark gaze of creepiness on the thief.

"Nope, I simply dislike raving bloodthirsty lunatics - which I know you are. Don't think I don't recognize that...charming face of yours, Tyrian Callows."

"Ho? I guess my reputation in the Underworld is still present even after my sabbatical - I'll be lying if I say I'm not glad about it. Good times!" the stinger-less scorpion faunus smiled, reminiscing of the times he did whatever he's done to become infamous.

"You know him, Torchwick?" Ruby asked.

"Later Red, if you don't annoy me by then." Roman answered. Truth be told, he also has a couple of questions about what happened after his untimely demise. From what he could figure out by simple observation, Champ probably died and Cinder has a grudge on Red. For now he might as well keep his mouth shut and enjoy the trainwreck that is the psychotic Pyrrha Nikos on the big screen.

**Train tracks** **wouldn't be something that anybody normal would consider a safe walking space - key word being ' _normal_ ', since the current subject of the scene is anything but.**

**_'This...is me.'_ was said by the soft-spoken inner voice.**

**"I'M READY FOR A SPINE TINGLER!" was exclaimed by the actual voice of the girl, who was currently walking on the highly dangerous tracks, swinging her buzzaxe in front of her, perhaps out of sheer boredom.**

_"How peculiar - her situation is somewhat similar to my...condition. Although I believe it goes more into the realm of psychology than magic since both sound like the same person...with one of them being less sane.'_ Ozpin thought as he continued to watch.

_**'Yeah, great...Hey, remember back when we were sane?'** _

**"THEY CAN TASTE THE BLOODY HATRED!"**

_**'...Guess not.'** _

_'So she wasn't always like this. What the heck happened to turn her into...this?'_ Jaune wondered.

**The voice sighed, unsure if it was worth talking to herself anymore. Most of the times she's completely ignored and gets either a reply that is either a battle cry that revolves around performing the can can dance on someone's intestines or an order of two nipple salads, a large-sized nipple salad, a face pizza with extra dip, a brain chili, two ear tacos, one with cheese and a large soda.**

**The last one kinda felt out of place, but she didn't bother to ask at all.**

_**'Still can't hear me, can you?'** _

**She got no response(per usual), but continued on anyway:**

_**'Little voice inside your head, reminding you of times when we could go hours, days...even weeks without screaming about our desire to ride bicycles made out of meat?'** _

_'Being trapped in your own body, only the one in control is completely insane.'_ Oscar shivered at the though, while Ruby could see that the boy was thinking about something that made him visibly uncomfortable.

**Again, no response. Almost like the girl couldn't hear her at all.**

_**'I don't even remember myself, to be honest...By the way, there's a train behind us.'** _ **the voice spoke with disinterest.**

**"EH?" the girl muttered as she turned behind and lo and behold there was a train coming right at her. A second too late and there wouldn't be anything left of her but pink mist. But since that would be such an anticlimactic and quite unsatisfying way to end the story, fate deemed that the girl dodges the incoming train in time, belly flopping on the scorching sharp sand.**

_'I guess I...she's listening to the voice considering that she should've heard it coming from miles away. Guess that's a bit comforting.'_ Pyrrha thought, smiling at small mercies her counterpart had.

**The girl let out a silent grunt of pain, slowly rising up from a very close call. But as she got up, she looked forward and saw something that made both the Psycho and the voice completely baffled...**

_**'Oh God...'** _

**The outfit that the girl's subject of interest was wearing wasn't what someone would call proper desert gear - it was a yellow tank top with light blue jeans, common brown combat boots, a single belt that had a pistol holster and had a strapped book with a strangle leathery cover that was adorned with unknown runes. It didn't look like he was doing something specific besides patiently waiting for the train that almost ran over the Psycho girl.**

"Looking good Vomit boy!" Yang chided, to which Weiss yawned and said:

"For some reason I'm not even surprised that Jaune is there."

"Hmph, you're saying like that's a bad thing." Nora added, looking all pouty at Weiss.

"I do not, just...I just have this nagging feeling that we'll be seeing a lot of-"

"Nope." Bob interrupted the heiress.

"Huh?"

"Pretty much everybody will get their time to shine on the screen - repeats, sure but nobody particular here is gonna hog the scene by themselves."

"Hm, good to know I guess?" Weiss responded, not sure how to proceed with the conversation until she decided she's just going to continue watching.

_**'He has an ice-based elemental SGC sub-machine gun!'** _

**True to that, the gun he held had a spacey sci-fi look to it, the cracks on it glowing a bright sky blue.**

"That looks so cool! I wonder what its capabilities are..." Ruby muttered to herself.

_**'He's a Vault Hunter!'** _

**He turn around to see what's behind him, revealing his fairly young and unblemished face, shaggy but well-kept short blonde hair and almost otherworldly blue eyes that completely hypnotized both the voice and the body of the girl.**

_**'He's a Magus warrior who can kill me with his brain!'** _

_'Magus? Are those supposed to be male Maiden counterparts on Pandora? Interesting...'_ Salem thought.

**The Magus' face scrunched up to see what exactly is in front of him.**

**"What the- is that a Psycho?" He spoke outloud, as he looked a bit baffled at the ripped Psycho girl staring at him.**

_**'He's the most handsome man I've ever seen.'** _

"Appropriate reactions from both of them." Ren bluntly noted, knowing it would cause his teammates to blush a bit.

**She was slowly rising from the sand as she silently gazed at the boy, who was getting increasingly suspicious of her.**

_**'Tell him he's as gorgeous as a thousand moonlights...Tell him you need his help...'** _

**The boy backed a bit and had his gun at ready in case something happens.**

_**'Tell him to rescue you and care for you and WHATEVER you do DO NOT scream the word POOP at the top of your lungs!'** _

"Oh no." Blake reacted, preparing for the inevitable fallout.

"Heh, she's gonna say it." Mercury chirped almost happily.

"I hope she doesn't..." Ruby meekly said.

"C'mon Rose, you can see it from a mile away what she's gonna say."

**"I'M THE CONDUCTOR OF THE POOP TRAIN!"**

"See what I mean?" Mercury said as a smug smile formed on his face.

Pyrrha Nikos didn't want anything else but to facepalm and not face what comes next. She also might've died a bit inside.

Jaune, on the other hand, was worried how his counterpart would react to this. And rightfully so, as they see quickly what is about to happen next.

**It was at this moment she knew...**

**She fucked up.**

"Otherwise this wouldn't be fun, now would it?" Roman finished, as everybody was now witnessing the consequences of the Psycho's words.

**The boy definitely made up his mind as he jumped down the short flight of stairs and started shooting at her. As she stumbled around to find some cover, the voice began to speak:**

_**'It's over you idiot...you're gonna die here and now... and the last words that came out of your mouth will be...poop train, ugh...'** _

"Naaaah, it'll be fine - I say this is a perfect example of a love at, uh, first shot!" Nora remained optimistic, with her peers hoping she's right about this.

**The girl peaked over the cover that was possibly the only hard rock in the desert. Besides the boy that completely won her over, she saw a group of slim, sickly looking people in coats crawling behind the Magus boy.**

_**'Great, now the Rats have arrived...'** _

"What's up with the deformed skinny dudes? Rats?" Sun asked, to which Roman responded with this:

"They seem to be the type to latch on to you and claw your face out...kinda like kitty cat over here."

While Blake wasn't really surprised about Torchiwick's questionable quips and didn't really thought of it anything (mostly because it was Roman Torchwick who said it), Yang on the other hand cracked her knuckles and butted in:

"Wanna repeat that again, pretty boy?"

"Cry me a river blondie - I'm from Southern Vale AND I'm a criminal, do you really think I care about what I say?"

Yang's only response was a threatening gaze followed by silence, which Torchwick naturally didn't take seriously at all.

**Her tone however quickly changed from annoyed to worried as she noticed the Rats brandishing their shivs as they slowly creeped on the Magus, who was completely unaware of their presence.**

_**'Crap! Turn around Magus...turn around or you're dead!'** _ **the voice yelled, but to no avail.**

_**Tell him to look back, now!'** _

"Gotta say, it's kinda hilarious how lack of perception and spatial awareness is the most consistent thing here." Qrow chuckled.

"Maybe it's something in the water." Weiss noted.

"Seriously, how do you NOT notice that behind you is a screaming psycho, an incoming train or a bunch of giggling maniacs?! I don'- you know what, forget it." Blake raised her hands in defeat.

**What the girl did peak above and wave her axe like a maniac as she exclaimed:**

**"STRIP THE FLESH!"**

**When she was met with a hail of ice-bullets, she went back to cover. The voice inside her chastised at her:**

_**'No! Listen to me!'** _

**"SALT THE WOUND!" She exclaimed once again.**

_'Dammit you...you moron! Do something!'_ Pyrrha clenched her fists in frustration of her counter-part hesitating to act.

Almost as if she was reminded of her own failings - both as a teammate and as a friend.

**The voice sighed, knowing that getting upset over her won't save the boy, so she calmed herself and spoke:**

_**'Alright, we will salt all the wounds later. But right now, if you don't do anything he will die and it's going to be your fault!'** _

**She knew she couldn't ignore the voice any longer, no matter how much she resisted and growled. Probably because she knew that she's right. So the Psycho stood up and readied her buzzaxe.**

**"TURN AROUND LADY KILLER!" She yelled out as she threw her weapon, which landed right between the eyes of a Rat that was inches away from the Magus. The boy looked at the Rat behind him who was blabbering grunts of pain as the buzzaxe sawed his forehead in half, wondering how the hell did he not notice something behind him.**

"Cool!" Nora quipped at the bloodshed before her.

**The girl, on the other hand, moved forward and jumped on the Rat's shoulders (that somehow managed to hold the weight of someone twice his size and five times his weight) and pulled out the buzzsaw in a gory fashion. She then proceeded to have a good ol' time hitting and slicing every Rat in the vicinity as she laughed like a bloodthirsty maniac.**

"You know, I want to question how slimmy's shoulders can support the weight of the a buffed 6 foot tall girl...but I get a feeling like I'd be missing the point of this." Emerald noted, to which Bob decided it was necessary to step up and say:

"You have magical girls, soul-based energy and transformative weap'ns that are riddled with overly-complex mechanisms or they're downright useless in a majority of situations. But no, a world chock-full with mutated bandits that ignores weight differences is completely baffling to you?"

"Hey, Crescent Rose isn't overt-ovary- uh, complex nor useless!" Ruby pouted.

"Eh, sure I'll give that one to ya - still it confuses me how you can swing it like it weighs nothing. Ah whatever, talk for another time."

**"THAT'S THE STUFF!", she exclaimed as she pulled out her tool that was stuck in someone's ribcage.**

Glynda could only roll her eyes at that - she never understood those _types_ of people, the ones who don't see combat as something that has to be done, but rather something that gives them a thrill or a sense of euphoria. Now, don't get her wrong, she has nothing against people who find fighting entertaining, but losing yourself in the bloodshed and viewing combat as a means to get high is something that completely evaded her throughout her career as both a Huntress and a teacher.

**She turned around to see a whimpering Rat with his hands clasped together, as if he was praying for his life. What he got was the Psycho's maddened gaze down on him and the words that shook his very being:**

**"I'M GOING TO PUT MY PAIN INTO YOUR SOUL!"**

**Safe to say, the Rat fell unconscious and might need professional mental help to get over his newfound fear of women.**

"Well, Oz - guess you now have a perfect line to say if you go insane someday." Qrow joked, earning a chuckle from his friend.

"Dully noted Qrow. Dully noted."

**A high-pitched cry got the Psycho out of her raging stupor as she saw a Rat jumping on top of her. Considering she was three times the size of the Rat, she wouldn't have any trouble actually getting the underweight maniac off herself if only the Rat actually got to her.**

"Again - zero perception at all. How is anybody there still alive?!" Blake complained.

**But nothing of sort happened as a black orb had the Rat suspended in the air. The Rat himself was yelping as the o** **rb compressed him in sort of a comedic cartoonish way. The Psycho girl looked somewhat impressed and turned around to see the Magus approaching her. His tattoos were now glowing in bright blue color, perhaps a reaction of using his powers.**

_'So that is the power of a Magus...Interesting. Are they similar to the Maidens, with multiple people being Magi with their own abilities? Perhaps I'll consult with our host about this later - he seems unbiased towards everyone in this theater.'_ Salem made a reminder to herself and continued watching.

**No words were exchanged as the girl turned around and shoved the buzzaxe into the screaming Rat. The action produced a very satisfying fleshy sound.**

**As the girl was pulling out the buzzaxe out, the voice inside her head began talking again:**

_**'Now say thank you. Tell him that because of him...we might get a chance to live like a normal person again.'** _

**The Magus looked at her - normally he'd express his gratitude and give an apology to the person, who he tried to kill, that just saved his life. But he waited, since she looked like she was thinking about saying something.**

**Or perhaps even attack him - you could never be sure with a Psycho after all.**

Pyrrha Nikos could only pray that her counterpart wouldn't say something insanely stupid.

"Bet she'll say something related to meat."

Emerald turned to Mercury and responded with:

"Not making a bet with you Merc, not in this life."

"Why - cuz you know I'll win?"

"Drop dead." Emerald joked, leaving Mercury with a wide grin on his face.

**He didn't have to wait long for that as the girl turned around and exclaimed:**

**"I POWDERED MY NEVERMORE FOR THE RIBCAGE SLAUGHTER!"**

"Told ya."

**Visible confusion could be read on the blonde Magus' face for a moment, which then transitioned into a sure smile. The look in her eyes told him that there's definitely something different about her.**

**"Heh, sorry for shooting you like that. The least I can do is pay you a ticket - that is if you're looking to board. Er, anyway my name's Jaune - what's yours?" he smiled, and extended his hand towards her.**

Pyrrha sighed in relief - crisis has been averted and everything is normal. Well, as normal as it can be.

**The Psycho took Jaune's hand and started shaking it up and down in a cartoonish way.**

**"MEAT GIRL PYRRHA!"**

**Jaune didn't look slightly concerned, letting out an honest chuckle at the girl's antics. As they broke their handshake, Jaune went towards the train's door and said:**

**"I'll just call you Pyrrha...So, wanna go?"**

**Pyrrha enthusiastically looked at Jaune as she followed him.**

_**'Heh, close enough!'** _ **were Pyrrha's thoughts.**

...

"Well that was an...interesting _take_ on Pyrrha, if you can call it like that." Weiss noted, but then continued on with: "Bob, don't mind me if I'm asking but...what exactly are we watching?"

"You've almost answered yer own question there, Weissy. But to clarify it for a bit..." Bob went to the center of the theater to clearly face the entire audience.

"We're basically watching alternate worlds, and what yer counterparts do in 'em - the best thing about 'em is that each and every one of 'em is different and unique in their own way. Example would be som'thing like this, with Pyrrha and Jaune on a desolate shitehole that is Pandora."

"So that's what we'll be doing until that artifact fixes our world?" Blake asked.

"Yup." was Bob's plain and simple response.

"Hey, I guess there worse ways to spend an unspecified amount of time, right?" Sun optimistically spoke. Turning the direction of the conversation, Doctor Oobleck stepped up with a question:

"Mr. Bob, I must ask you - these counterparts of ours that we''ll watch, how closely do they resemble us?"

"Quite a lot Doc. But it all depends on two factors - their previous background, which is usually tied to the world, as well as what changes happen that make them different from yerselves. Case with Pyrrha, on Pandora she was basically experimented on and used as a guinea pig by a corporation until she gone mad, killed everyone and broke out of her prison."

Pyrrha was a bit shocked at that bit of information - sure she expected that her counterpart perhaps went through something traumatic that made her...like that, but she guessed that the experiment part also explains the overly lean and muscular body.

"Now, of course, yer gonna see Remnant here where the only thing that differs are the events that happen that drastically differ to what happened in yer own planet. The best part about this is that anything goes - hell, I've seen Pyrrha, as in Pyrrha Nikos the Beacon student, accidentally stabbing herself with a steroid needle."

"What?! How...?"

"Doesn't matter - what matters is that d' girl literally goes into a frigin' ROID RAGE where she destroys her own bed, eats half of the Beacon cafeteria with a metal tray, sexually assaults Jaune in public, beats up the entire student body with her bare hands, accidentally kills, uh, what's-her-name...Amber! Yeah, accidentally kills Amber, gets her Maiden powers, decapitates Cinder and gets HER portion of the Maiden powers and then beats Salem into submission thus ensuring peace on Remnant."

Safe to say, most of the audience was completely flabbergasted and confused at what they've just heard.

"Lies!" Tyrian spoke through his teeth, not believing for a single second what Bob spoke.

"That sounds completely insane!" Weiss yelled out.

"Hey, I'm just telling you what I saw - no to throw a hissy fit because Pyr steals Jauney in the most alpha way possible AND asserts her dominance over you in a span of a single day. And don't worry Tyrian - she burns you and Hazel to crisp so you don't live long enough to see that."

Bob could barely hold his laughter since both Weiss and Tyrian were giving him the exact same sour, unamused look.

"You're actually serious. By the Gods you are actually serious."

Bob turned to Ozpin, who looked at him like a a lost lamb gazing upon a rainbow.

"Not gonna lie, best part's when Pyrrha can't recall anything during her steroid smashering and you literally saying yer off to kill yerself before wishing her the best." Bob bursted into uncontrollable laughter after finishing his sentence, leaving the Beacon staff very confused and some of the students even moreso.

"Though it kinda pales in comparis'n to when Cinder was going all "REEEEEE MAIDEN POWERS 'RE RIGHTFULLY MEIN YOU MAGGOT, ILL CUT YER HEART OUT" and boy how she screamed "it's unfair, it's unfair" as her head was being chopped off. _Hilarious_."

"Hmm, that part I can believe." Arthur spoke, smiling behind his moustache as he needed to look at Cinder once to know she's trying to suppress her anger. Almost like a toddler. Heck, even Tyrian's initial shock was quickly replaced by amusement at how undignifiedly Cinder died.

Pyrrha on the other hand had an expression of a dead fish, as if someone told them...

 _'So...all it needed to solve everything was...to inject illegal substances into myself, unintentionally ruining my integrity as an athlete and not even remembering what I did during...and...'_ Pyrrha thought,

"Hey, Pyrrha - you, uh, are you okay there?"

"Huh?" the redhead turned to see her teammates looking at her in worry.

"You zoned out a bit there." Ren simply stated, which was a cursor to the infamous motormouth of Nora Valkyrie that started:

"I mean, yeah, it can be a bit of a BIG SURPRISE how you only needed to pump yourself up to kick Salem's ass and save everybody, even though you also probably cause a lot of collateral damage and traumatize a couple of students, not to mention - hey Bob, when you said Pyrrha did Jau- err, did, uh, ' _something_ ' to Jaune...?"

"Nah, nothing t'a extreme - just sum, hueh, _tongue wrestling_."

Bob had a big grin, hidden behind his bronze mask, as the redhead in question was blushing like a beet.

"Sorry, but you said that she has beaten Salem into submission, right?"

Bob turned to see Ironwood, and judging by the suspicious look on the General's face, Bob had a pretty good idea what his question will be.

"Yup."

"Why didn't she just kill her like Fall?"

The masked man could feel everyone's eyes on him. The one that stood out was, unsurprisingly, Salem who looked curious rather than either suspicious or questioningly.

"I'm goin' here on mem'ry - can't recall all the details...well at least not the memorable, flashy ones. Gimme a break, I'm one-thousand-years old, give or take a few decades." As Bob finished explaining, he noticed two peculiar things among the audience - Ozpin looking a bit relieved that his dirty secret wasn't out, and Salem's amusing smirk, which he took as an invitation to talk.

"Wow, really? You don't look a day over 40!" Yang gave the compliment with a smile.

"Aw thanks, yer makin' me blush, hehe. Anyways, I gotta go an' see what we'll be watching next - be back in a jiffy!" Bob skeedadled to the right side of the wall. But as he passed by the black seats, he took a glimpse at Salem's, who still held that curious smile.

_'Too soon for da big reveal, trust me - it'll be fun once I drop the truth. Don't spoil the surprise in the meantime, heh.'_

Salem was slightly taken aback at Bob's voice that echoed in her mind, but considering the range of...talents her host exhibited, she wasn't too surprise at him having the ability of telepathic communication, almost like the one she has with her chosen Grimm.

As her host was leaving through the sliding wall, she couldn't help but to smile - that poor fool of her former husband seems to be hiding information from his allies, critical information regarding her condition of being immortal. And if she were to trust Bob, Ozma will have hell to pay once the truth comes out in the open.

She was looking forward to that moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge shoutout to Constable Paperbag for making the masterpiece that is the "Apex Pyrrhedator", which I referenced at the end of the chapter. Go check out his other works, they are equally amazing. Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/6378547/Constable-Paperbag


	3. The Patriarchal SpankTM

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews and criticisms are very welcome. Requests and suggestions? Not so much. Guests reviews that do that will be DISINTEGRATED. For the context of the upcoming fight, I suggest watching moike kobe's God Hand LP videos since I'm drawing references from them.  
> Sauce: Yakuza 0, Chapter 3 "A Gilded Cage"

"If what Bob said was true, then it seems that doping has the potential to save the world...and I cannot believe I just said that." Weiss spoke out loud. The Beacon students and staff were still perplexed by Bob's report that Pyrrha Nikos combined with steroids solved an age-old problem.

"I mean, it WAS an accident. At least it sounded like one..." Ruby whispered, still in disbelief over the story.

"Wait, let's go back - who would even consider using those kind of substances?" Blake asked, her question followed by Jaune's own:

"And why would they even use them in the first place?"

"You don't know kid? It's widely known among the Huntsmen that taking steroids is always a bad idea - sure you get a massive rush of strength and you feel invincible, but as Bob told us - the redhead there ended up wrecking half Beacon. And she's just a student." Qrow spoke, which prompted Ruby to visualize a roided Glynda Goodwitch creating a crater the size of a city.

She wished she hadn't.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the theater, Cinder Fall looked...irritated, to put it mildly. Not only she heard about how that pathetic, suicidal moron that is Pyrrha Nikos managed to not only defeat her, but also be theatrically proud of how she killed her...that masked idiot with a speech impediment had to laugh at that.

Laugh at _her_.

She was sure he wouldn't be laughing as much if he didn't take her rightfully earned power. Even if he did fix her body and restored her to her former look, taking away something she had claim on is something she'd remember, whether it was done for ' _safety reasons_ ' or something else.

"I'm back kids, ya ready fo' the...?"

He stopped dead in his tracks and looked at her. It would've been better if the buffoon wasn't hiding his face behind that grotesque mask of his, but she was confident enough that she could read someone through body posture only.

"Hmm, ya look a bit...agitated."

Cinder looked at him, ignoring the stares of her mistress and her _'colleagues'_ , and, politely as she could, answered:

"I don't feel _agitated_. Is there a problem?"

"Heh, now that right there - that's a lie. And pretty sure everyone around ya knows it too." Bob playfully responded.

"So am I expected to speak only unconditional truths to you?"

Due to wearing a mask, Bob's eye roll was hidden. He then responded:

"Nah, Cindy - but, uh, here's the thing. I'mma host, yeah? And as a host, I believe one of mah jobs is to make ma guests happy. Seeing you all looking like ya wanna kill me kinda affects the mood, and I'd be a bad host if I allowed fo' that to fester."

Interestingly to Cinder, the way Bob said that he wouldn't allow her...'bad mood' to affect the rest of the audience didn't sound particularly threatening. On the contrary, the way he spoke is as if he's about to provide a solution.

And provided a solution he has.

"Alright, I'mma give back all yer powers Cindy!"

Safe to say, the statement caused quite an uproar at the white seats - and for the first time of being here, Cinder could say that she honestly felt happy. Not content, but happy enough to form a hidden smirk.

Among the rabbles and cries of protest, Bob managed to single out Wukong who said:

"Whoa, whoa, Bob - what are you doing?!"

"Oh relax - geez, y'all be going like I'm doing something crazy here."

"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING CRAZY YOU, YOU...!" Weiss protested, but was ignored by Bob whose attention was on Cinder now. And while she was happy at the prospect of her powers being given back (as they should've been back in the first place), she wasn't naive as to believe that this...Bob would just give them like that.

"I have to presume there's a catch, correct?"

"Yup - I'm not a person who just gives away stuff for free. So I thought how to have you vent yer frustrations, fulfill ma curiosities and potentially earn back all yer fancy abilities..." Bob carelessly slided the remote across the other side of the room as he continued:

"We're gonna have a spar, you and I."

"Oh?"

Cinder would be lying to herself if she said that she didn't find Bob's fighting abilities amusing. While the way he moved simply reeked of style that is purely for attention-seeking, she could feel a familiar sense of sadism and bloodthirst when he was curb-stomping those angels into bloody bits. He was almost like her, really.

"So, what would be the rules of our little spar?"

"Simple really - ye get your Aura back, yer Semblance back and yer Fall Maiden powers back while I, to keep things interesting, can only use my hand-to-hand style."

 _'Hand-to-hand? He very likely means that drunken stance he used against the swordsman. If that's the case, then he might be annoying combatant, but still managable to deal with.'_ Cinder thought as Bob continued to talk about the rules.

"Yer only goal is to get a good hit on me - that's it. If ya do that, I'll let ya transfer yer powers to the theater here and have everyone else at yer mercy. Sounds pretty cool, yeah?"

"No it doesn't!"

Bob turned around to see Jaune Arc standing up, anger and rage written all over him.

"How can you do this?! Are you out of your-?!"

Jaune's words were cut off by Bob's overly loud yawning. The masked man stopped him from saying anything else by stating:

"Sit down boyo, and lemme finish my sentence."

The boy gritted his teeth in frustration, ready to outright not listen to him just so he could spite him. Or that's what Jaune would do if he didn't feel Pyrrha's hand on his own. And while both Nora and Ren looked at him out of concern, in Pyrrha he saw the gentle look of reassurance that she'd always give to him whenever something's wrong. She didn't even had to say that everything's alright, because he felt that from her. So he took a deep breath and sat down, and listened to the discussion between Bob and Cinder.

"Tch, tch! Kids nowadays are so rude, amirite or amirite?"

"Quite. Back on the topic - you have yet to mention what you need to do to win." Cinder asked. While she was pretty sure she could pull off a simple task of hitting someone with her magical abilities (with that someone also handicapping himself for some reason), she knows better than to go in uninformed.

"A simple knockout. Nothing too fancy...though if I win, well - yer gonna go through a, _heh_ , permanent attire change."

And now the little respect she had for her host was gone, now that she saw for the leech he is.

"Don't worry tho, ya ain't gonna wear anything perverted...much." Bob let out a chuckle as he went towards the giant screen and put his hand on it.

"Just stand her next to me and touch the screen and you'll be transported to the ACTA. You up for it?"

Cinder looked at him confidently, and responded with:

"Do you even have to ask?"

* * *

Few seconds passed after both Cinder and Bob disappeared into particles of blue light, James looked at Qrow and stated:

"You seem quite...sure of Bob's victory there."

When Bob announced that he'd be giving their worst enemy their powers back while they themselves remain powerless, James felt betrayed - especially by the man who supposedly saved them, even though he didn't quite believe he went through the trouble of saving them and is restoring their world out of the goodness of his heart. Seeing the destruction of Atlas, Mantle and all the people he swore to protect hit him hard, even though he tried his best not to show it, but Bob's promise to reconstruct everything brought some hope in his heart.

Quite a conundrum this was, because if James took the logical (albeit a bit more paranoid, he had to admit) conclusion of Bob being an agent of Salem, the masked man had every opportunity to kill them or restrain them - after all, they were weaponless and didn't have Aura to protect them. What works against that theory is that, even if Bob did offer Cinder her powers back, Salem and her followers were stuck in the same position as them - weaponless and powerless. And yet, he can't say that Bob is on his side because of how genuinely friendly he was acting towards the queen of the Grimm, although he did jest at her follower's expense.

Then again, he was acting friendly towards everyone and mostly kept to, as Qrow would say, messing with everyone.

"Not gonna lie, Jimmy, I'd be pissy about this just like Jauney here," Qrow stated as he went through his pockets to grab his flask that wasn't there, "But I dunno if you've seen the dude fighting those Angel-like things-"

"Applauds and Affinities of the Third Sphere of Paradiso!" Penny added with her usual jitteriness.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever - the guy was obviously taking the piss on 'em all. Guy was more focusing on looking good as possible rather than being practical and stuff."

"Your point being?" Winter questioned, skeptically eyeing the smiling crow.

"He was holding back, and I'm willing to bet on, eh, pretty much everything I have that he's gonna win."

Jaune still wasn't sure of that, especially how nonchalantly Bob talked about that bitch literally having all of them under her thumb. That reminded him of the old Cardin, more than anything - same bravado, same cockiness.

"What makes you say that?" James asked - the man was naturally curious, since Bob managed somehow to win over Qrow's expectations, which the general knew were rigorous and unforgiving. It was one of the things he respected him for, after all. He did agree on the notion that Bob was holding back - not to mention how he managed to instantly regenerate from his wounds. Though for the purpose of Bob's fight, regeneration didn't really matter - what mattered was skill, and he had to admit that Bob did show plenty of fighting skill.

"Call it, heh - Tai, how would you say it?" Qrow turned to his former team member who sported a confident smile.

"Fighter's intuition."

"Yeah, fighter's intuition."

Ah, the _'fighter's intuition'_ \- James didn't hear that phrase in a while. In fact, the last time he heard that was during his 3rd year, about a month after he got transferred from Atlas Academy to Beacon via a student exchange program, which is how coincidentally he met Ozpin, who still looked the same 20 years ago. The phrase was an inside joke of meeting someone who, while they don't look the part, are very strong and skillful to the point of absurdity.

Case in point - Peter Port, who was a teacher's assistant at the time. His small stature and wide waist don't exactly paint the image of an ideal Huntsman - in fact, Port looked more like an accountant than someone who could suplex a Beringel. And yet, not only he did exactly that, but he also successfully managed to beat up both Taiyang Xiao-Long and Raven Branwen, who were considered Beacon's top combat-centric students at the time, with nothing but his fist and a piece of concrete he chucked from the floor of the arena.

Good times.

"You are willing to put faith in this man because of your gut feeling?" Glynda asked, who was almost on the verge of rolling her eyes.

"It's figh-"

The theater screen flashed to life with a television distorting sound, and opened with the scene of both Cinder and Bob standing across each other.

"Hey it's starting - trust me, this one is gonna be a blast."

* * *

The feeling of being disassembled and then shortly re-assembled again is one thing that Cinder isn't looking forward to experience any time soon. Don't get her wrong, she felt no pain when that happened, it just made her a bit...

"Particle teleportation sure can get under ya skin, doncha think?"

She didn't respond to that, but was more focused on the calm and serene void of white light around them.

"Quite a location to pick for a spar." Cinder spoke.

"Haw, this? Nah, I was thinking 'bout something more, heh, familiar..."

She was looking how void started shifting and turning the moment he finished his sentence. In a span of five seconds, the dull white void shifted and transformed into a place Cinder thought she left behind, buried with her past. The lobby, the wood, the furnish, even the "no faunus" sign - it was all there, in the exact same spot and the exact same condition.

"This...you..."

"Yep - 'was thinking it'd be a nice place for ya to let lose, eh?"

Cinder's gaze was now centered at Bob and she knew...she knew that he was now trying to provoke a reaction from her. To enrage her so he can have the upper hand in the upcoming spar. He probably set this up so everyone, both ally and foe, see her getting beat-up just because this masked moron intentionally opened an old wound.

_'The nerve...'_

She was having none of that.

"That aside...You mentioned something about being curious?" Cinder asked.

Bob noticed the little twitch in her eye as she changed the subject with a question of her own. Too bad she probably won't like the answer.

"Y'see, I always like fighting new types of foes, so when I he'rd about Maidens and their magical girl powers, I was thinkin' "hey, this might be something int'resting". What I've seen so far...eh, not impressed."

The Fall Maiden's response was a smirk as a faint glimmer of fire began forming around both of her eyes. She extended her hands and conjured a pair of small symmetrical fireballs that levitated above her palms.

"But hey, like ma teach always used ta say..."

Bob's Giant Father mask changed into the Drunken Master one as he lowered himself by his knees and extended his open palm towards Cinder.

"Don't judge a mag by it's cover model." he finished, as he signaled Cinder with his hand to come at him.

* * *

[ **POISON QUEEN**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhjIcgg2mVc)  
from **God Hand**  
music by Masafumi Takada

* * *

Back at the screening room, viewers were greeted by the techno-like intro of the song that began to play as two things simultaneously appeared at the upper corners of the screen.

"Alright, alright - not a bad song, I dig it!" Sun enthusiastically noted. Illia on the other hand was focused more on the additional information on the screen that appeared to be Cinder's and Bob's picture with an individual bar next to them.

"Those look like their Aura levels." she said.

"Hey, Bob's Aura bar looks a bit weird." Ruby pointed out.

While Cinder's bar came in the standard gradient that went from green (the highest Aura capacity) to red (the lowest Aura capacity), Bob's "Aura level" was in a consistent color of yellow, something which confused both the professors and the students. What was even more perplexing were the five small golden orbs that were placed underneath Bob's bar.

"Why is it yellow? I mean, does Bob even have Aura in the first place? And what's the deal with-" Weiss questioned, to which Yang scoffed at and simply said:

"Nobody cares, Weiss - let's watch the fireworks!"

**Cinder was first to initiate the attack with a relentless volley of fireballs that rapidly honed on Bob. He responded by simply dashing forwards, dodging the fireballs that ended up flying above him as he tried to hit Cinder by performing a sliding kick. Cinder sidestepped away and summoned a pair of glass swords that she tried to use to strike her opponent while he was open.**

**But Bob quickly reacted by somersaulting backwards, his feet deflecting the swords as he got himself into his usual stance.**

"Did he just parried her attack with a somersault?" Yang asked outloud.

"Yep - that's pretty rad!" her dad noted, ignoring Qrow's snickering for using outdated slang.

**Instead of recoiling from the parry, Cinder used the momentum to carry out a horizontal attack with both of her blades that chained into an elegant spinning flourish. Bob weaved and ducked on each swing, which ended up in not one of Cinder's attacks connecting. The Fall Maiden then tried to finish the flourishing combo with a hard hitting and quick vertical strike that she knew Bob couldn't simply duck beneath it, but Bob predicted such a thing as he sidestepped to the left and performed an uppercut at Cinder's exposed stomach.**

**The hit excluded a booming sound as Cinder was mildly lifted off ground, but Bob didn't stop there - he performed a scissor kick, which lifted his opponent much higher and finished it with a powerful roundhouse that sent Cinder flying to a nearby pillar.**

"Wow, Cinder is getting her ass handed." Roman quipped, however he couldn't help but notice Neo tugging at his sleeve at pointing at the contenders' Aura bars - more specifically Cinder's.

Adam too has noticed it - the fact that, while he could feel the weight of Bob's kicks and punches just by watching him, he was doing literal chip damage to her Aura - he barely scrapped off 5% of it from the move he just did on her..

**As Cinder quickly got up, she saw Bob, who hasn't moved from his spot, flexing his right arm and proudly tapping the bulging muscle as he let out a taunting laugh.**

**The flames around her eyes lit up brighter as she catapulted herself towards him, leaving a trail of fire behind her. Halfway through her dash her body was suddenly enveloped in brilliant red flames. Bob deduced that she's planning to tackle him with full force, while the fire around her would make it impossible to cleanly dodge it in any direction.**

**So he decided to face her head on, as waves of golden energy began surging to his hand - or more precisely, his index finger.**

"Bob, what are you doing?!" Weiss loudly proclaimed.

**He pointed his index finger in a form of a finger-gun in the direction where Cinder was coming from and in the last milisecond before contact, the extended finger formed into a fist that delivered a short-range punch right at Cinder's face, which sent her flying through the pillar now and onto the wall.**

The student's roared and cheered as Bob's attack took a good chunk of Cinder's Aura - roughly around 20%. Arthur Watts, on the other hand, couldn't help himself but to pinch the bridge of his nose due to how idiotic Cinder's rush ended.

"Damn that was awesome!" Neptune yelled out enthusiastically.

"Hey dad, was that a one-inch punch like in the movies?" Yang asked.

"I'd say it's THE one-inch punch. And from the looks of it, I think I figured out what's the deal behind Bob's Drunken Master style." Tai spoke.

"Hey, one of those orbs beneath Bob just disappeared!" Ruby pointed out. Disappeared was a bit of a wrong term, as only the color within the orb was completely gone - effectively turning the orb into a hollow circle.

"Hm, whatever it is, it's obvious that he spent it in some way to unleash that attack. Perhaps those orbs hold some reserves of that golden energy Bob has?" Winter suggested.

**Instead of standing at the spot to taunt her, Bob dashed forward and caught up to Cinder, who was trying to get up from the sheer force she experienced from the previous attack. He raised his foot to perform an ax-kick, but instead of immediately executing it while Cinder was down, he held it up as the same golden energy was being condensed in his foot.**

**Cinder tried to take advantage of the opening Bob was giving her by trying to blast him with a fireball, but Bob's foot came down on her with lightning-fast speed as her body rebounded of the ground from the kick. Bob tried to kick her while she was airborne, but instead Cinder used the momentum from Bob's second kick to roll off to safety.**

"Dunno about the orbs, but I'm pretty sure I figured out the gist behind this style - and that is enhanced counter-attacks." Taiyang concluded, which drew the attention of his daughters and their peers.

"Counter attacks?" Oscar asked curiously.

"Basically hitting someone while they're either in the middle performing their own attack or attacking while they've whiffed. Counter attacking is great against opponents who heavily telegraph their attacks, they have windups between their attacks or just have a long recovery time after an attack. They usually do increased damage and hurt more since, while attacking, the body is focused solely on offense while sacrificing defense..."

"I'm sensing a but here." Blake noted, to which Taiyang nodded and continued:

"But Bob, heh, butbob..." Blake expectedly rolled her eyes at the joke. Tai coughed an 'ahem' as he continued," Bob here gets the move on a whole different level - from what I can figure out, he sacrifices the power of his basic attacks to enhance the power of his counter-attacks."

Qrow couldn't help but crack a smile while looking at his ex-brother-in-law. It's been a while since he saw Tai being all focused and enthusiastic about...anything really. They really haven't talked since the time he saved Yang and Ruby when they were toddlers - a lot of harsh words were spoken that week, and neither of them even tried to fix whatever their relationship as the remaining team members of STRQ has crumbled.

 _'Maybe when this is all over I can go an' visit Patch for a short bit...'_ he thought.

"Qrow?"

The Huntsman turned his gaze to see James looking at him with mild concern. He sported a smile to him and simply responded with:

"Nothing to worry about James, now let's watch the ' _spectacle_ ', eh?"

**Cinder began levitating as she fired a massive fireball towards Bob, which was big enough to engulf even the second floor terrace into flames. When it made impact, the fireball exploded leaving nothing but charcoal black furnishing and burning ashes in it's wake.**

**"Where is he?!" Cinder spoke loudly as she saw no remains of Bob anywhere near the impact. She didn't had to wait long as he emerged behind a knocked down dinner table. She didn't had time to react as Bob quickly kicked the table towards her, to which she had to summon her swords to slice it apart.**

**If it weren't for the table obstructing her vision, she might've noticed Bob who was spinning towards her. Since she didn't, Cinder couldn't have had the time to react and took the full force of the spinning headbutt to the face, which took around 10% of Cinder's Aura.**

**Cinder ended up crashing on a nearby diner table while Bob ended up landing directly on the receptionist table in an alluring drunken pose.**

"Okay, now he's just screwing with her." Yang said while giggling alongside her peers that couldn't help but laugh at how the fight was going on now.

Mercury had half an idea to laugh with the rest - hell, Tyrian looks like he's having the time of his life - but he kinda felt sorry for Emerald who kept silently cheering for her mistress/mother-figure or whatever she sees in Cinder.

**Cinder needed a second to get her bearings from all the dust and smoke - if she had took one more though she would've been hit with the full force of Bob who tried to crush her by launching his back at her. But she managed to roll away in time and gracefully get up as she attempted to stomp Bob's head with the heel of her stilettos.**

**Bob's response was to simply slap away the heel as he drunkenly got up without using his hands. Cinder took his stupor as an opening as she quickly summoned another pair of glass swords to cut him in half. Bob simply limped away like a drunkard and giggled at her in the same manner. She then tried a combo that began with a thrusting attack with her left sword that chained into a vertical attack with her right sword and ended with a horizontal slash with both of her swords.**

**The last move however never came to be as Bob twirled around her attacks and delivered a one-two blow of an elbow to the back of her head and a heavy slap directly on the nose, which took another 5% of her Aura and left the maiden stunned and disoriented in place.**

"Was that a pimp slap he just did?" Neptune asked.

"And a glorious pimp slap that was - I couldn't have done it better myself, to be honest." Roman quipped, who was feeling very happy for some reason. Probably has to do with a horrible ex-employer being humiliated by someone who's fighting style is based around being completely wasted.

**Taking notice of Cinder's temporary helplessness, Bob did what every red-blooded man would do in his position - he kneeled on one leg, straddled the girl by her torso, positioned her on his thigh Golden energy began coursing once again, now through his entire palm as he swung his hand above his head...**

**And began rapidly spanking her ass cheeks** **.**

Roars, cheers and laughter could be heard from the students as well as a few adults in this room as they watched Bob hitting Cinder on her cheeks with such speed that it almost looked cartoonish.

Mercury couldn't help himself but laugh with Tyrian (who laughed like a maniac) at the expense of his boss, but taking a glimpse of the half-mortified half-blushing face of Emerald who tried to cover her eyes made everything even funnier. Even the ever-stoic Arthur Watts couldn't help but chuckle a bit at seeing his expectations of Cinder being realized - the expectations being that of being an utter failure and disappointment.

 _'Quite fitting punishment for someone like her.'_ he though, twirling his moustache.

Salem herself had a small smirk on her face - her dear Cinder was being rebellious of lately and was planning on showing the consequences of her disobedience. But she guessed that being publicly shamed like this might leave a more lasting effect than whatever she had in mind.

"I stand corrected - Cinder is NOW getting her ass handed!" Roman joked with Neo silently snickering beside him.

"Hehe, look how she jiggles~" Nora giggled, pointing how Cinder's ass cheeks produce waves with every spank as they absorb the force behind each blow.

**After a dozen of rapid-fire spanks, Bob unleashed his full might on the finishing one. The force behind it was so strong that it launched Cinder a good ten meters away.**

Glynda was both without words and absolutely shocked how a move that had the sole purpose of degrading an opponent managed to bite 30% of Cinder's total Aura gauge. Though upon closer look, she found out that a second orb beneath Bob's gauge vanished.

 _'Did he use one of the orbs to empower his...strikes?'_ Glynda almost cringed at the last part. She's sure to ask him more about the finer details of his unarmed style. Provided he doesn't do anything that tasteless in the future. She also noticed that Cinder Fall's Aura was dangerously close to red, which would be around 20% of one's maximum Aura - usually in these kinds of bouts the fight would end after one or two well placed strikes as any more would result in breaking one's Aura.

Bob however specifically set that, for him to win, he needs to knock Cinder out. She would probably call out such a rule as unnecessary wanton cruelty, but from what Ozpin once told her - Maiden's can use their magical abilities even when they have no Aura whatsoever. Perhaps he set the rule as to give his opponent a fighting chance?

She wondered all about that as behind her Nora Valkyrie head-bobbed in the rhythm of the music and hummed whatever vocals the battle song had.

**It didn't take long for Cinder to pick herself up, albeit a bit clumsily. Her face, surprisingly for Bob, didn't portray any form of embarrassment. The look in her eyes was manic as she herself was seething with rage and hatred as the flames around her grew even brighter.**

**"How...how DARE YOU!"**

**The fires around Cinder were hot enough that everything that was made out of wood in her radius began catching fire.**

**"YOU PERVERTED DEGENARATE!" she roared, sending fireballs of various sizes towards the target of her anger, who either stepped away from them or performed a consecutive set of various over-the-top acrobatics to dodge them.**

**"I WILL MELT THE SKIN OF YOUR BONES FOR THIS, DO YOU HEAR ME?!" Cinder added as she summoned an infernal great sword from her raging fire in her hands that, in Bob's opinion, looked a bit too big for her. If she were a man, he'd probably make the ' _compensation_ ' joke, but it is what it is.**

_'Heh, now that's a familiar sight. Let us see how you handle this, Bob.'_ Raven thought curiously.

**"Oh Cindy yer breaking ma heart. Don't promise what you can't deliver." Bob responded with a mix of faux sadness and honest disappointment.**

**With a battle cry, Cinder charged at Bob with her oversized sword with surprising speed. But yet again, Bob managed to weave through every single strike without a sweat.**

**The moment Cinder performed a thrust attack, Bob sidestepped out of the way and raised his foot. He brought it down on the sword and began running on the blade and towards it's wielder. The Maiden, in all her rage, was surprised at Bob's move that she couldn't even react properly as Bob grabbed her head with both of his hands, somersaulted above her and used the momentum to throw her on the ground.**

"Yeah! Get it BITCH!" Nora yelled out triumphantly. What made the scene even sillier for some who turned around to look at the hyped-up girl was the rest of her team who looked very content at what they were looking at.

**The force he used was appropriate enough to make Cinder re-bounce from the wooden floor. The maiden was still airborne when Bob landed next to her - the masked man quickly reacted as he performed a stomping fist that straightened Cinder up in the position he needed.**

"How embarrassing, being tossed around like a ragdoll during the entire match - I wonder what kind of outfit Bob plans to put her in after the match?" Tyrian coyly spoke, which made Emerald both cringe at the madman and worry about what Bob will do to Cinder. She'd be an idiot to not assume that he will dress her up in something shameful to become a laughing stock for everyone.

The green-haired thief wasn't sure what she could do about it, if there is anything she could do.

**While an another wave of golden energy was surging now through Bob's both hands, Cinder managed to regain control of her body through sheer will and anger as she spun herself to land an ax kick directly on Bob's head, and her grinning face of madness and hatred betrayed how confident she was about her 'surprise' attack.**

_'Wow - gotta give it to the boss, it takes a lot to look more maniacal than the actual maniac behind me.'_ Mercury thought, noticing behind him Hazel's almost tired face, Watts pinching the bridge of his nose, Tyrian trying to stifle a giggle and Salem sporting a slight smile. It was pretty obvious to him that they knew where this was going, he knew where this was going, Bob probably knew from the start where this was going. Hell, even Emerald ,who before silently cheered for her quasi-motherlike figure was now biting her lower lip out of slight frustration knew where this was going.

The question is - how did Cinder NOT know where this was going?

**Bob, however, jerked his torso backwards from his 'stomping fist' stance as Cinder's kick failed to connect to his head, and with his golden energy fully stored in his hands, he quickly waved forwards and hit Cinder's exposed stomach with both of his fists at the same time with enough force to send her crashing once again through a pillar and into the wall. And with that, her Aura gauge is reduced to zero.**

Cheers came from Yang and Nora when Cinder's Aura became depleted, while their other peers either clapped or silently cheered out of politeness.

"Guess that's a wrap then?" Neptune asked in a sure manner. He wasn't gonna lie, from all of the things he heard about the Cinder chick being an supposedly unstoppable Maiden with magic (and being absolute psycho), he was kinda scared when Bob just told everyone out of the blue that he will give her powers back while the rest of them would be sitting ducks for her. Seeing how Bob not only managed to beat her without getting a single hit, but how he completely nonchalantly did it was very cool.

"Not quite - after all, for our host to win he needs to knock dear Cinder out, yes?" Tyrian spoke, a creepy smile adorning his face,

"The outcome is clear as day, why bother?" Adam dismissively asked, to which the tailless faunus chuckled and replied with:

"Dear boy, I knew she would lose from the very beginning. I just enjoy watching the, how would you say it - fireworks? Fireworks, yes, from start to finish - and I'm tingling with the anticipation of what kind of finish I'll see!"

"Dude, context..." said the mildly annoyed Sun.

**A cloud of smoke and dust rose where Cinder landed, obscuring the woman to the point that even a silhouette cannot be seen. Broken furniture, smashed chairs and ravaged dinner tables adored the once semi-luxurious lobby of the inn, with certain parts even burnt to crisp and coal, courtesy of the Fall Maiden powers - safe to say that the entire space now looked like a warzone.**

**"Huh?" Bob uttered as he noticed his opponent walking out of the cloud towards him. While she didn't looked worse for wear, due to her Aura healing every bruise Bob inflicted as well as protecting her clothes, the expression on her face told a completely different tale.**

**"You..." she growled, staring angrily at the masked man.**

**"Me." Bob dully replied.**

**"I won't let you...no, I REFUSE TO LOSE AGAINST SOMEONE LIKE YOU!"**

**Cinder summoned two flaming great swords that were nigh identical to the previous oversized one, the only difference being that they were just slightly shorter.**

**In Bob's opinion, it still looked a bit silly.**

**"YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME, HUH?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!"**

**Cinder's magical prowess was now on full display, as the trails of fire on both of her eyes looked like they burned just as strong as her anger.**

**"** **No need ta think - I kno' I'm better."**

"Shots fired, woo!" Sun cheered.

**Cinder roared as she dashed with both swords at ready. However, when she began attacking, it was obvious that the Maiden was exhausted due to Aura shortage. Her moves, while dangerous, became clunky and slow to the point of being telegraphed easily. Bob didn't even bother to perform his drunken dodges and either stepped to the side or normally ducked.**

"Seriously?! Now she's just asking to be countered! Can she do nothing other than swing those swords of hers around like a complete novice?!" Weiss berated.

"Ms Schnee, you wouldn't be saying such an obvious statement if you worked with her. I consider this as her... _'normal'_ state of mind." Arthur responded in his casual manner, as if was stating a simple fact.

"Wow...you, uh, you really don't like her, do you?" Ruby sheepishly asked, scratching her cheek in uncertainty.

"My, what an _astute_ observation." the scientist dryly noted and continued to watch the fight.

"...Jackass." Yang whispered, sending glares to the man.

**The Fall Maiden put both her swords in a reverse grip and tried to stab Bob by striking with both swords above his head. While he did step back, Cinder's attack connected to the ground and she used the swords as poles to transition to a forward spinning kick, which, while surprising Bob, were ducked over nevertheless. The spinning kick then transitioned into a spinning sword slash, which Bob evaded all by weaving his torso left and right.**

**"It's over."**

**Bob's words went over Cinder as she roared with a thrust with her left sword single sword that she tried to chain into an another attack. However, Bob side stepped to his right and performed a chop kick to her ankles, tripping her and making her fall to her knees, all the while he was storing energy in his right palm.**

**"NO!" Cinder screamed as she saw the rapidly approaching glowing hand...**

"Wait for it..." Qrow eagerly said.

**That hit it's target. Which was her ass.**

**The spank was so strong and so powerful that an energy field burst from the epicenter, sending every piece of furniture scrap and wood away. The sheer force send Cinder rolling through the destroyed lobby before smashing onto a pile of chairs and tables.**

"He is now actively trying to make this more and more ridiculous, isn't he?" Glynda muttered to herself, ignoring the laughter and the cheer all around her. However, she'd be lying to herself if she didn't find the sole fact of someone taking on a Maiden barehanded and with a skill-based ability quite impressive.

Throughout her career she had seen a lot of one-trick pony Semblances that her students and fellow colleagues used as a get-out-of-jail card or relied on it them too much due to how easy they could be used. Her Telekinesis belonged into that group, which is why she only uses it when it's a matter of life-and-death or to fix occasional property damage.

So it was refreshing to see someone besides Taiyang and Summer in possession of a Semblance (if she can classify Bob's power as such, she'll have to ask him about that later) that requires proper use of it since otherwise it won't work.

Of course, she will keep her thoughts to herself and not give Bob the satisfaction of knowing this.

**As she lay on the pile, her hand tried to outstretch towards Bob, looking almost like she was trying to reach out to him. Her last expression was a mix of shock and pure hatred before she finally lost consciousness.**

**And with that, Cinder Fall was bested.**

The scene faded into black as the screen shut off.

"And that's a wallop! Is that how you say it, friend Ruby?" Penny asked in the most innocent way possible, which made Ruby giggle that soon turned into a full on laughter, something which utterly confused the robot.

"To think you had any doubt in Bobby here, Weiss..." Yang started, but was interrupted by Weiss who said:

"I admit, I might have overreacted a little bit. Though you weren't much better at hiding your doubts."

"Me? Doubting? Nah, never!" Yang responded, flashing a grin to her teammate. No one on her team bought it however.

On the other hand, the General and the Headmaster (alongside his staff, Qrow and Taiyang) were having their own discussion on the matter.

"Well, in any way you look it, Bob is...quite an individual." noted Ozpin with a smile on his face.

"Qrow's prediction..."

"And fighter's intuition!" Qrow jokingly interjected before letting James continue:

"...All of that aside, we just witnessed someone literally making a complete joke of someone with the Maiden powers. If we-"

"Nah, forget it Woody."

Everyone turned to look at the turned off screen to see Bob appearing in front of it. The masked man looked relaxed with both hands behind his head as he strolled around.

"If I wanted ta help ya, do ye really think I'd go the extra mile and save the big titty Grimm mommy and her posse alongside you?"

Many eyebrows were raised, giggles could be heard, James was somewhat stunned by the statement, Ozpin was chocking on his own spit and Qrow bursted into maniacal laughter. Even the ever stoic Hazel couldn't help but chuckle a bit while Tyrian looked at Bob with the most unamused expression ever. Salem, while not knowledgeable with the modern slang, knew very well how Bob just addressed her. A very welcome surprise at that, mostly because she wasn't exactly getting offers after...

The queen of Grimm perished the thought and focused more on enjoying the brief moment.

"Oh, c'mon Tyrian, don't look at me like that - I'm a red blooded man, after all!" Bob boisterously added.

"Where is Cinder?"

Bob's attention was now on the obvious one who asked the question. He could see the worry shown on Emerald's face - the girl is just way too obvious with how she cares about her, something which Bob found adorable in some strange way.

"Eh, she should be here right about...now."

Particles of light began to converge at the front of the screen, slowly taking a familiar female shape. The light then faded away, revealing a bitter, yet surprisingly calm Cinder Fall, much to the surprise of Arthur Watts and Tyrian. There was second, more noticeable difference too - her elegant, provocative red dress was now replaced with an old-fashioned combination of a brown long skirt with an open white corset.

"Looking like a real housewife there Cinder - suits you perfectly." Roman quipped, though Cinder decided to ignore the thief and simply walk towards her seat.

"Hey Cindy, fighting Bob - must've been a real pain in the ass, eh?" joked Yang. But Cinder didn't even do as much as look at her.

If there were crickets in the room, they would be chirping at the uncomfortable silence that came after. Luckily it lasted only three seconds before Bob approached the middle of the seats, where Roman, Neo, Raven and Adam were and spoke:

"Anyway, Roman tell me - would you like some pussy?"

Shocked jaw drops or laughing faces were the reactions of the audience. Roman looked somewhat between surprised and utterly confused:

"Well, I never expected THAT kind of question...uh, I cannot think of a witty way to answer that."

Bob reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small, white can with the words "Pussy" etched in glowing silver letters.

"Pussy, the energy drink of course!" Bob added, to which Roman began laughing almost to the point of falling from his seat, while some of the more serious guests questioned how a drink can have such an inappropriate name.

Then Mercury had to step in with his own question:

"What flavor is it?" he slyly asked.

"Flavor?" Bob repeated the question.

"Don't-Do NOT answer that question. Just leave it." protested Weiss, who looked both angry and embarrassed, if the blush on her face is of any indication.

"Now, wait a minute there - now I'm curious. May I?" said Roman as he extended his hand, prompting Bob to give him the can of Pussy. The criminal opened the can and took a light sip of it. A second later he took an another sip and swallowed without showing a hint neither of disgust nor pleasure.

Neo budged her partner, as if she's asking what he thinks of it. Not only her, everyone's full attention was on Torchwick's judgement on the energy drink.

"Hm, I'll be perfectly honest - it's a bit strange."

"Don't you mean-"

"Yang, I swear to God..."

"Fishy?"

Taiyang and Sun, out of all people, offered the blonde a high-five which she proudly took, all the while her teammates and other peers wanted to either bury themselves 6 feet deep or they were trying to hide their best on how they thought the joke was actually funny.

"I hate you Yang. I hate you so much."

"And I love ya too, Weissy!"

Seeing that Roman doesn't look like he'll continue drinking Pussy, Neo took the can from his hand and sipped some of it. And by the look of her face, she found it surprisingly enjoyable.

"Alright, real question now - do cabaret clubs exist on Remnant? I'm askin' since, while watching y'all, I didn't see a single place that might be similar in function'."

"Yep, they do, just not in every kingdom obviously. Most of them are in Vale and Atlas, though there are a couple in Mistral as well, and they're pretty much based in the capital cities." responded Qrow.

"What he said - although Vale is a bit of a special case when it comes to those." Roman added.

"How so?" asked Bob.

"Before I continue, I think I need to explain these wide-eyed brats what cabaret clubs are."

"Hey! Anyway, what's a cabaret club?" Nora casually asked, completely forgetting about the insult.

"It's a night club where you can sit down and chat with staff members, called hosts and hostesses, while ordering drinks, snacks and listen to some good music." explained Roman.

"Chat with the staff? Like it's some sort of a social kind of thing?" Neptune asked.

"Depends on whether they like you or not really - their job is to talk, flirt, be funny excetera excetera, all the while you pay for drinks and food." Qrow responded.

"But usually they're there only because you're paying them, right? That sounds a bit sad." Illia commented, to which Roman chuckled and gave his own thoughts on the topic:

"It comes down to how you look at it really - sure you have some guys and girls who are lonely and don't have regular friends, but the targeted demographic really are people who don't have much free time, and when they do all of their friends and acquaintances are busy. So they can choose whether they want to go to some restaurant and eat there alone in silence, or go to a cabaret club, eat and drink something fancy while also having someone beside them to keep them company for the time being."

"Wow, I...would never guess you'd thought like that Torchwick." said Ruby sheepishly as she scratched her head.

"I spent a dozen or so years in Sakuracho, Red - I know how those establishments run and why they're there."

"Really? I've never actually been there."

Taiyang's ears perked up when the criminal mentioned the name of the district. Sakuracho, or "Cherry District" how the native Valeans knew it, is a eastern part of the Vale Capital that is a famous (or infamous depending on who you ask) entertainment and red-light part of the city whose citizens are primarily of Mistrali origin. But not just any Mistrali - the 'old' traditional Mistrali, who still speak their native language, don't use the widely adopted color-based naming culture and only use the general Vytalian to communicate with non-Mistrali people.

And while he knew that Qrow can go anywhere and everywhere, cultural differences aside, due to having a Huntsman License, he couldn't help but wonder how someone like Roman Torchwick, a renowned Valean thief, could spend so much time there. It was a rule...well, more like a gentlemen's agreement between the Vale and Sakuracho criminal elements to not operate in each other's territories, mostly because their cultures and protocols were vastly different, as well as to not cause chaos so they don't risk the wrath of the Council or Beacon. Taiyang knew that all too well.

So how were Torchwick's operations tolerated in Sakuracho? Assuming what he said was true, someone like him would only be there just for the clubs, arcades and karaoke.

And besides him being a well-known criminal from Vale, Taiyang could swear that he saw him somewhere else too...

"Though from what I've heard, cabarets and hostess clubs have just recently became popular in Atlas. Probably found that there are things more fun than comparing who has a longer stick up their-"

"We get it Torchwick, you don't like Atlas."

"Who does, Princess?"

"So! Bob, did you ask about those, uh, cabaret clubs cuz you're gonna show something related to them?" Ruby jumped in, quickly defusing any further argument between her teammate and nemesis.

"Yep - yer preceptive then ya look kiddo. Y'all ready?" asked Bob, and was responded with a couple of nods and silent agreements.

"Good! Let's hop right into it, shall we?" Bob added as he seemingly pulled out the remote out of nowhere and turned on the screen.

"Oh, by the by, this 'ere scenario happens aboot 3 days after RWBY & JNPR 're formed in Beacon - just sayin' for context' sake."

**The floating capital of Atlas - a massive, metropolitan technological marvel that proudly stood, or levitated to be more precise, as the kingdom of Atlas' undaunting symbol of strength and pride, but also ingenuity and progress. Or at least that's what an average citizen of Atlas would tell you.**

"THAT'S Atlas?! The size of it...it's so big!" said Ruby, completely enchanted by the metropolis - rightfully so, since this is her first time seeing it.

"That's what she s-ow!" Mercury exclaimed, turning to Emerald who kicked him in the shin, and then remembering that he now has actual flesh & blood legs.

"It looks very impressive - is it using Dust to levitate above ground?" Blake questioned.

"Correct. Gravity Dust specifically - the tether cables not only serve to provide the necessary balance to keep the capital steady, they also serve as connection to Mantle below." Winter dutifully explained, which to the keen almost sounded like practiced speech.

"Why is it floating in the first place? Seems kinda, dunno, risky." asked Nora. Now it was Illia who stepped in, preventing Winter from responding to the question, and said:

"Isn't it obvious? Blue collars and the poor are stuck in Mantle while the upper middle class and the rich live comfortably in Atlas and don't want to do anything with those below. And those tether cables the Schnee mentioned? They also serve as sewage pipes for the capital."

"You used to live in Mantle, right? How was it there?" Sun asked. The monkey faunus quickly noticed how she suddenly became gloomy and almost depressed. It took Blake's sharp gaze at him to remember the situation around her late parents.

"Oh crap, I'm sorry-"

"No, i-it's fine - I'll tell you later. Let's just watch this, ok?"

**At night, however, is a completely different story. If one could look above the capital, they would notice something a bit off when it came to the lights and how they correlate with the size of the buildings throughout the metropolis.**

"That's a weird power distribution right there." commented Yang.

"For a good reason, fire cracker. You'll see." Qrow spoke.

 **The buildings that were taller, more luxurious and technically more advanced due to being built recently were poorly lit, with the light sources mostly covering the streets. This section that covered almost half of the entire capital was also completely and utterly quiet. This was the Calypso sector, known to house important political, financial and cultural institutions such as the Atlas Council** **House and the Icefield Museum.**

"Ah, Icefield Museum! My first heist in Atlas, sneaking around lasers, cameras and getting the Diamond of the North - good times!" Roman fondly spoke.

"Torchwick, the Diamond of the North is still in the museum. I know you can't help but lie, but at least make up something convincing - everyone knows that the museum is impenetrable." rebutted Weiss while trying to act smug towards him. Key word being 'trying'.

"Oh, very impressive of the curators - I know they eventually managed to get a replica to replace the real diamond, but to do that fast? No wonder there weren't any news outlets droning about it."

"Uh, what is this Diamond of the North? And why did no one reported being stolen?" Jaune asked.

"The Diamond of the North, kiddo, is supposed to be the gem that adored the crown of the former Atlas king - it's supposed to be one of the kingdom's most important historic relic, but they were so sure no one would steal it that the security over it became quite shallow. As for why the little heist remained unknown to the public, I have only two words for you - outrage & Grimm. You're smart enough to figure it out, no?"

The blonde did figure it out pretty quickly - if word came out that the museum failed to preserve a national treasure of great importance, then the public outcry would probably have so much negative energy to attract any Grimm in close proximity. Which is what makes Torchwick even more of an asshole now that he think about it.

"You do realize that you directly put in danger a lot of lives both in Mantle and Atlas, right?" Ironwood venomously spoke to the thief, with hidden anger behind the General's eyes that was directed at Roman.

"Then do something about it instead of preaching morals with a criminal. But hey, that's just my opinion." scoffed Roman, almost mockingly so.

**The second district is called Hyas, which was known for being the sector that housed the Atlas Academy, food and clothing markets as well residence for all Atlas citizens, with the exception being the Schnee's who had their manor positioned in the Calypso sector.**

"A-Anyway, that must be the Atlas Academy!" mumbled Nora out loud, in an obvious attempt to clear the sort of a hostile atmosphere, "Yeah, looks pretty big...why is it called Atlas Academy? Seriously, it's kinda confusing when you get all other Academies in the picture with their own names." she added.

"It actually had its own name before it was changed 3 years ago - Alsius, it was called. It means 'cold' and 'being liable to frostbite' in ancient Remnanite, though anyone who graduated from the Academy learns how to resist succumbing to the latter, so the meaning worked in sort of an odd way." Winter spoke politely with a hint of pride.

"Why the name change then?" Nora asked, to which Winter's proud expression devolved into an annoying sigh, almost like she was hoping not to mention.

"The reason being that most of the Atlas council, all of them being civilians..." _and have no idea what it's like or what it means to be a Hunter_ was left unsaid, "thought Alsius wasn't a name that was marketable enough for future Huntsmen and Huntresses. So they voted for the name change with 5 out of 7 votes."

Since James held two seats in the Council, one for being the military General and the other as a Headmaster of the Academy, Qrow easily figured out that the two votes were his. And knowing James, the guy was probably infuriated that a bunch of coddled-up idiots decided to change something that wasn't theirs to begin with.

"That is really dumb. Like really-really dumb."

"Know this, Miss Valkyrie, that politics in the Kingdoms tend to devolve from reasonable discussion to a shouting competition." Ozpin noted.

**And then there was the polar opposite of Calypso, which was Dione - the sector completely focused on leisure, entertainment and pleasure. It was also the sector that almost hogged all of its lights, which were used to illuminate every square of the road, power up the neon signs of various fast food establishments, night clubs, bars, gaming cafes and the rest. While Calypso and Hyas were dead silent and barren, Dione was completely filled with people chatting, laughing, eating in open fast food restaurants or just simply taking a walk on the large pedestrian zone.**

Weiss had to admit to herself that she didn't really know Dione that much. She did visit the sector via the occasional business visit where her father dragged both her and Whitley (and a bodyguard too) with him, though she was more focused on what father said on the table with either a partner or an investor rather than look around and see what Dione had to offer. Whitley, on the other hand, would let his eyes go left and right and look at everything around him - she would often chastise him about not focusing on what matters the most.

 _'Come to think of it, is that why Whitley doesn't...? No, we were kids, there's no way he would hold a grudge over something like THAT...Would he?'_ the former heiress thought.

"And that's where all the power goes to at night - Dione, the only good thing Atlas has to offer. Booze, drinks, snacks...hell, even the people there are way nicer than you'd expect!" Qrow smiled.

"Though, it's expected considering most of the civvies there are immigrants from other kingdoms, mostly Mistral. People who succeed in Dione are often those who had to work their ass off a while, doesn't matter if they're human or faunus."

"Is Dione really like that?" asked Blake curiously.

She knew that Atlas was separated into three sectors, the most powerful and wealthiest of them all being the Calypso sector that was blatantly racist against faunus, with some of the spokespeople there even advocating to bring slavery back. Blake talked to Neon Katt after her fight with Yang and Weiss at the Vytal festival about it and she learned that the sector Hyas, one with all the educational institutions, is quite open to the faunus thanks to Ironwood, while Dione stepped a bit further where all people, regardless of race, were welcomed. She didn't get the chance to ask more about it though.

"Wanna clue on it Bart?" asked Qrow his green-haired Hunstman colleague who took over answering the question.

"As Qrow said, most people in Dione there are immigrants from Mistral. But these weren't just any immigrants - these were the traditional Mistral, who believed in the old traditional ways of Mistral before the Great War. These traditional people are honor-bound and adhere to many customs, one of them being 'Okyakusama wa kamisama desu', which was later localized in Vytalian as ' _the customer is king_ '. The real meaning of that saying is: 'the customer is GOD'."

"That's a little bit extreme." spoke Ruby, who was taken aback by that. Qrow stepped in now and said:

"Heh, I guess that's why they're fun to be around. But that also comes with a sad fact that, before the Great War, Mistral was pretty much like Vacuo - you're being judged by who you are and what you do as an individual, doesn't matter what extra body part you got or don't. Now? Now every second store or bar in Mistral that I pass by has a frigin' "No faunus served" sign, and they put 'em in clear view like something to be proud of. Tsk."

**Amidst all of that, however, was a single, rectangle-shaped building that stood out the rest of them. It wasn't particularly tall, far from it, but what it lacked in height it compensated in width and the sheer space it took. What also made it stand out were the funky yellow lights flashing in fading patterns that nicely complimented the elegant red color of the walls. On the very top of it was the glowing symbol of a crown that stood between two words, the top one being the smallest and glowing green while the bottom one being the largest that shone red light on a black background.**

**This was the most famous night club in Atlas, and for some people, the best one in whole Remnant - Cabaret Grand.**

_'Well now, that is quite interesting indeed. I know that there is a Grand in Dione, but comparing that run-down shack to this one is night & day. So this is what Bob mentioned when he said that something is always different...'_ thought Watts, expecting the clip he was currently seeing to focus solely on the newly renovated cabaret.

**Many would agree that the Grand is like a perfect book - the shiny cover that is the exterior serves to catch attention and open the doors to the amazing, almost godly interior. The club uses it's enormous, two-floor space almost perfectly - every leather seat is put where it needs to be without sacrificing space for movement; a podium was placed at the center of the back wall where a band (all dressed in neat white suits) played relaxing jazz music; the wall lamps were aesthetically pleasing and set exactly where they would provide the most light.**

**True, the Grand itself wasn't an architectural marvel, far from it - it was quite ordinary, really. But it shows that there is beauty in practical simplicity.**

"That place looks real cozy! Hey, wanna visit it after Remnant gets fixed and whatnot?" asked Yang her team and peers.

"Sorry to disappoint ya fire cracker, but our Grand is nothing like this Grand here on the screen. The Grand in Atlas is literally just a third-grade cabaret club that's on it's last legs."

"And you're not even of legal drinking age Yang. Don't think I forgot about the 'talk' that we'll have later." added her dad. Yang could only pout in response.

**The staff, both the hostesses & the bartenders, and the guests are an another story altogether, all of them ranging from local guests having nice, friendly conversations with a glass in their hands and a snack on the table to the rich patrons from the Calypso district using their given free time in the best way they can think off. A local regular had two hostesses that poured two bottles of champagne in the ice bucket, and the man gladly drank from it as the girls kept enthusiastically encouraging him to do so.**

"Huh..." Adam silently uttered out. He was already familiar with James Ironwood's efforts to push equal opportunities for the faunus and convince people to abandon their prejudices in favor of mutual cooperation. Being one of the rare humans who are actively doing something to help his people, Adam held deep respect for the General. However, he knows the General is playing a losing game - you cannot change people's minds by saying that their thoughts aren't right, even if you display evidence and present good arguments.

People are spiteful and willfully ignorant because they're afraid of change, and the General is wasting his time by trying to show what's outside their cocoon they formed around themselves. Adam on the other hand is the one who slices the cocoon open, whether they like it or not.

Not like he cared about that in the first place.

"Dude, that's like kinda disgusting - drinking out of the ice bucket, really?" Neptune commented.

**One of the richer clients, a first-timer, also had two hostesses, both a rabbit faunus and a human, by his side - the man was clearly tipsy, judging by the tie wrapped around his forehead and bills of lien tucked around it like he was some mythical drunken warrior from Mistral surrounded by giggling women. The women giggled some more when he decided to give them a single bill each - by putting between their breasts.**

"That's where THAT goes. Right there." Mercury joked, which earned him a snicker from Emerald instead of a usual jab.

**Behavior like this in Calypso would be entirely unacceptable and socially damaging, but the man couldn't care less now - he was having the time of his life.**

**He was so happy that he took a wad of cash and threw it in the air, which made the two hostesses by his side cheer as they began rapidly collecting the money that fell on the floor.**

While Adam was contemplating how shameful was of the girls to grab money of the floor like rats, Sun chuckled and said:

"It's totally a fantasy of mine to be rich enough to throw money around me and have everyone scramble for it like maniacs."

"You really have no shame, do you?" asked an unamused Illia.

"Nope."

**"Wow, this is quite amazing. I've never seen anything quite like it."**

**"No surprise there. She's the number one club here, and not going into this club while visiting Dione is like having an Atlesian breakfast without tea!"**

**The ones having the conversation are a pair of businessmen - or more precisely, a cheery bank director and his boss, the owner of the bank chain. The bank director, while being in his late thirties, looked just as young as a college student while his boss was the exact opposite - a man in his late forties who wore reading glasses and looked like he is a month away from retirement. The old-fashioned glasses and the ashen grey hair, probably due to stress, doesn't help his case.**

**"Boss, let's get a seat and enjoy ourselves, shall we?"**

**"Alright then, lead the way."**

"Someone you know, James?" Glynda asked, noticing how her friend was eyeing the current subjects of the scene.

"Not personally. I think I recognize them from newspapers I've perused over but I can't really remember." responded James.

**The director smiled at the owner as both of them took the stairs and went on to the second floor. The older man stopped mid-ascend and spoke:**

**"I must admit, the things I usually hear about these kinds of establishments aren't really...positive, to say it lightly."**

**"Ah, Boss - that is just the talk of politicians who never even stepped one foot in Dione! Sure, rougher clubs do exist, but I guarantee one-hundred percent that the Grand is the real deal. See..." the director lowered himself to whisper something in the bank owner's ear while still maintaining his cheeriness.**

**"Rumor has it that a member of the Council is the one who owns the Grand."**

**The owner's eyes were wide and his eyebrows were raised in surprise.**

**"Really? I see a lot of Faunus around here, working here even - the only one I could think of being behind this is-"**

**"Who knows? Maybe it is the good General, or maybe it's someone else entirely. I honestly think it's great some clubs are getting progressive - after all, it would be a sin not to share this kind of fun with everyone! Now, follow me!"**

"Just to be clear, I hold no interest in either owning or running property in Dione." proclaimed Ironwood.

"Aw, come on Jimmy - you just might spice up the cabaret scene. Hell, you already have Winter to be the number one girl too!" Qrow said with a sly smirk, prompting Winter to turn at him with an expression of anger and embarrassment as she muttered:

"Why you-!"

Weiss couldn't help but to overhear the conversation and wondered what kind of dress would be best suited for her older sister.

**As soon as they got to their seats, a bartender approached them and gave them both fresh, clean towels.**

**"Cola and Nila will be with you shortly." noted the bartender before leaving.**

**"...Shouldn't the bartenders take our orders before leaving?"**

**"Don't worry about it! The hostesses are the ones bringing the menus and giving us recommendations. Speaking of which..."**

**The older man was completely taken aback by the two girls...no, two smiling beautiful women that approached them. The one on the left was wearing a bodycon of a shade of silver color that nicely complimented her long dark brown hair, while on the right was a blue-haired cat faunus wearing a pink jacket and skirt combo.**

**"Welcome!" said both of the hostesses at the same time.**

**Safe to say, the bank owner was absolutely stunned.**

**"Oh, uh...g-good evening!" he stuttered as his employee leaned towards him and whispered:**

**"They're nice, aren't they? Prettiest girls in all of Atlas!"**

**The girls automatically sat, each beside their chosen man, and got comfortable as the young manager spoke loudly:**

**"The chief here is the owner of the biggest bank chain in all of Remnant - the name "Plutus" rings any bells?"**

"Ah, now I remember - the older gentleman is Mr. Brockefeller, former owner of the Plutus bank chain. From what I remember, I believe the bank chain had to close down around the Vytal Festival due to some of the Vale directors embezzling money from their clients. But he himself is a good man, since he paid damages to every single victim what they were owed." James said.

"I believe I met the gentleman himself around that time, though he looked far far different from what we see now. He is currently helping his brother managing a dust shop and a noodle bar." Ozpin added.

**"Oh my, I have an account there! And all of the employees are very nice and polite!" the bodycon girl Cola said, to which the rabbit girl Nila tilted towards the older man and flirtatiously added:**

**"They must be picking that up from their boss! After all, a good boss always makes their employees happy~"**

**The older man tried to hide his blush by looking like he was adjusting his glasses, but he wasn't fooling neither the girls nor the bank director that he is touched by the compliment.**

**"W-Well, it's nothing special really - it's s-simple common courtesy to treat everyone that work for you right. Sometimes I wonder how some of my colleagues completely forget something like that..."**

**"That's so great - I actually knew right from the beginning that you must be a man with a golden heart! Anyway, do you come to Dione often?" Cola inquired, to which the older man had a short laugh at that and said:**

**"No, no, just business trips - and I came here because he insisted."**

**"Yup! So if you don't help me make this night a banger, my reputation will be shot! I'm counting on you two!" The younger man joked, to which Nila giggled and responded in an equal joking manner:**

**"Hehe, oh my, that's a lot of responsibility!"**

**After that Cola decided to take ship and opened up the menu. She politely asked:**

**"Well, let's start with some drinks, hm? What it'll be?"**

**The bank director took the menu out of the girl's hand to show to his boss, who properly adjusted his reading glasses as he looked through the list of drinks:**

**"Let's see...Hm, 10 thousand for champagne? That is really out there, isn't it?"**

"Whoa there, ten thousand lien for a bottle? Frigin' expensive is what that is!" spoke Neptune.

"It's pocket change for those two kid. Still...seems to me like the Grand is successful enough to pitch those kinds of prices." Roman noted.

**"In that case, let's go with the champagne!" the director enthusiastically spoke, which stunned the older man a bit as he pleaded:**

**"W-Wait, are you sure? It's 10 thousand!"**

**"No problem, chief! Can't have you worrying about the bill, so everything tonight is on me. You just focus on having a good time!"**

"Don't worry about it chief, just focus on getting drunk so I can have you sign some shady contract." Sun mimicked the bank director's voice.

**The director turned to Cola as he affirmed his pick.**

**"Thank you very much!" expressed Nila her gratitude, but didn't take too long before adding:**

**"But...will one bottle be enough?"**

**This question completely caught the owner off guard as he managed to utter a single 'huh' before Cola added:**

**"True. We have a Calypso bigwig here with us! A single bottle would go awfully fast - he'll think all of us Dionians are cheapskates!"**

Both Qrow and Roman began laughing like complete idiots, which made Winter look at both men and ask:

"What do you two find here that is so funny?"

"Hoho, this - this is what we like to call ' _the hostess racket_ '." Qrow said between the laughing fits.

"Hostess racket?" asked Oscar.

"Heh, alright kid, the racket goes something like this - you enter a club, a smoking hot hostess goes to you and says 'hey, I would like you a LOT if you buy these insanely overpriced drinks and snacks'. And then they lead you on and on and on until you're broke. In the end you don't get anything." Roman explained.

"But you had a good time and didn't do anything your wife would be mad about." joked Qrow.

"Except you did kinda waste your money though..." Jaune added.

"Except that, yeah."

**"Ladies, please..." tried to plead the owner, but from the look of the young director who seemed to be seriously thinking about it, his pleads fell on deaf ears.**

**"Hmm, you make a valid point. Yup, very convincing!" The director then clapped both of his hands as if he just has an 'eureka' moment and cheerfully added:**

**"So be it! We'll do this right, a bottle each!"**

**"Then four bottles then!" the rabbit hostess happily said, to which the ban director faked being taken aback and responded with a smile:**

**"Now just wait, you also want your own bottles?! Oh, fine. Four bottles it is then!"**

**"Spoken like a true man!" Cola said as she hugged the director's arm.**

"Huh, so that's how they do it..." said Pyrrha.

**"We're ready to order!" spoke Nila to the nearest bartender.**

**After getting their drinks, having a few shots and chit-chatting about fairly normal conversational topics such as hobbies, favorite places they visited, gossiping about politicians and so on, the older gentleman had to admit to himself that he was having quite a good time, despite his initial opinion he formed when he stepped in the cabaret.**

**Now he understood all the cheery and happy faces of men and women here - each and every one of them are here to relax and enjoy good company with drinks and good music.**

**While the bank owner had to let out yet another hearty laugh as Nila told him yet another joke, he couldn't help himself but ask the following question:**

**"This club is great! And lively too! But I must admit, the last time I visited Dione I never even heard of the Grand, not even from some of my friends who often visit cabarets here. How come?"**

**"Ah, it was only recently that this place really stood up." the young bank director responded.**

**"Oh, really?"  
**

**"Yessir. The management changed, and the Grand exploded like a meteor!"**

_'Hmm, something suspicious is going on around, but what exactly?'_ Blake thought as she focused on the conversations at play.

**It was clear as day that the older gentleman was quite intrigued by that, and now wanted to know more.**

**"That so? I know from personal experience that a change in leadership can be good for business, but to this extent?"**

**"He poached the best girls from other clubs. And if the rumors are true, he managed to do that with nothing but gathering info and a silver tongue - no extortions, no threats, nothing illegal of sorts. He somehow managed to do what most here considered to be an impossible task - take a big, sad, empty box that this place used to be and transformed it into something big, something magnificent. Something...Grand."**

"Hey, that's pretty good!" noted a smiling Yang.

**Both the director and the owner shared a short chuckle at pun, which prompted the girls to do the same.**

**"Ho, ho - he must be quite the businessman!" the owner said.**

**"Oh, definitely. Our manager's a celebrity around here - anyone involved in the nightlife, both workers and guests, knows about him." spoke Nila in a prideful tone.**

**"Hmm, well then - here's to hoping I'll be lucky enough to meet him sometime."**

**"Hey, I said that's ENOUGH!"**

**Both the bank director and the owner turned their gaze downwards and saw a middle-aged drunk who slipped a hand through the hostesses dress and was grabbing quite a handful of a breast. And from the looks of it, the hostess didn't like that one bit.**

"WOW! Hey, how about no?!" an offended Jaune said, while others looked either shocked or a bit uncomfortable.

**"C'mon, just a cup or somethin'. I paid good money here, and besides - I know you're enjoying this darling."**

"Dude, not cool. Not cool at all." Sun said.

**"Like hell I am! Let go you creep!"**

**Not even a second passed before a bartender showed up at the man's table and politely announced to the drunk customer:**

**"Sir, this establishment has a strict no-touching policy. Please restrain yourself."**

**However, his words fell on deaf ears as the drunk just kept touching the struggling hostess. So the bartender dropped the professional politeness and started talking in a more serious way:**

**"Look man, I'm warning you - let go of the girl."**

**The sudden change of tone got the drunkard's attention. While he stopped the harassment by pulling out his hand, the man looked at the bartender in silent anger, as if he just said something pretentious to him.**

**"Ho...?"**

"Oh boy, I know where this is going..." Taiyang sighed.

**The man shoved the girl aside as he stood up to the annoyed bartender.**

**"You're warnin' me, huh? Let go or WHAT, huh?!" He proclaimed outloud as he pushed the bartender who fell on the ground. The girl yelped, afraid of what's going to happen next. Since the altercation was happening very near to the podium, the band stopped playing as both they and the cabaret guests had their full attention on the scene happening on the ground floor.**

**Safe to say, the atmosphere has changed drastically for the worse.**

**"I'm paying good money here, glass wipe! So QUIT your whining!"**

**"Tch, you asshole..." the bartender gritted through his teeth as he was rising up.**

**Meanwhile on the second floor, the older gentleman spoke to his employee, the concern in his tone not hard to miss:**

**"Where is the security here? Shouldn't they be arriving at the moments notice in situations like these?"**

"That's a good question - where IS the security here?!" Weiss asked a question, to which she immediately got an answer.

**The young man simply chuckled as he watched what was happening down below and simply said:**

**"Heh, of all places to start a scene..." he then turned to his boss and added:**

**"Don't worry chief, this'll be over very soon."**

**"Why do you seem so sure about that?" his boss asked.**

**"Because he is coming to solve this. Just sit back and watch."**

**While the drunk customer and the bartender were stuck in a standoff of who will be the first to attack, some of the guests noticed a subtle clacking of shoes going down the stairs. They turned around and saw a well-dressed man in a tuxedo now walking slowly towards the scene. The two back-up baristas that were near the entrance politely bowed to him.**

Ghira and Kali's eyes widened, as they didn't find it difficult to instantly recognize who was the one going down the stairs.

**When the well-dressed man arrived at the drunk's table, the bank owner now had a good view to examine him.**

**The first thing he noticed about the man was that he looked very young, probably around his early 20s, but the steady posture and a strange professional aura that radiated around him gave an impression that he was quite mature, well beyond his age.**

Blake and Illia were...well, to say they were in a shock would be an understatement. Especially Blake, who wouldn't think that he'd be the last person to ever be this mysterious manager of the Grand.

**The other important thing the bank owner noticed was that the young man sported a well-kept red hair neatly tightened in a short ponytail, as well as two dark-brown horns protruding from his head - a clear indication that the young man is a faunus.**

Yang and Weiss couldn't believe their eyes - to see who exactly was the one that the hostesses bragged about so much. They just couldn't believe it at all.

**And the final thing was the dark leather eyepatch around his left eye, which in turn gave the young faunus a more sinister look, which would've made sense if the young man was a bouncer. But bouncers don't tend to dress in fancy suits nor do they adopt a professional pose while walking.**

Qrow and Roman were caught off guard by the scene's build-up into revealing who was the man that brought the Grand back to its feet. Though Roman was a bit impressed, considering his opinion on the animals that were the White Fang and their leaders.

**_'Could he be...?'_ the manager thought as he waited for the scene to unravel itself.**

**And then the young man spoke, softly and politely, as he bowed to the drunk customer:**

**"Your patronage here today is much appreciated. Thank you very much."**

Adam wasn't sure how to react to this. Being dressed like that, moving like that, TALKING like that...but he couldn't deny it. The man on the screen was him, alright.

_**To be continued...** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter might be a little bit shorter. Just a little bit, not too much. Tho I'd say to stay hyped for the 5th chapter, cuz I'm planning an another juicy fight scene in the theater!
> 
> Kek, bye.


End file.
